Tempest
by Laurillylou9484
Summary: Laurie Harper isn't your average, every day 15 year old. She is the protégé of a member of the Justice League, Huntress (not Artemis's mom, there's another one, look her up), and has been in the crime fighting buisiness with her since she was 10 1/2. She was getting the hang of juggling her two lives, when out of the blue, Batman persuaded Huntress to ask her an important question.
1. Chapter 1

"Tempest!" Huntress yelled. Striking some goon in the chest with a flying kick, then elbowing them in the nose, successfully knocking them out.

"Kinda busy!" I replied back. Jumping over two other guys, kicking them into each other, then kicking one in the face, knocking him out, and elbowing the other in the stomach, then punching him in the forehead. I watched him crumple next to his buddy, before turning my attention to the reinforcements. We were taking down a drug deal in Blüdhaven, after following a lead I'd found while in Gotham, again. The criminals in Blüdhaven were getting sloppier, and leaving trails in Gotham, and other surrounding cities. So easier leads for me to find, and leasy wasted time, hey, I even got to study for my AP physics test last night! Huntress was fighting her way through some guards in front the shipment, while I was keeping the not-very-useful reinforcements at bay.

I was getting a little board occupying these non-experienced buffoons, so I glanced at Huntresses progress and she was finishing setting the explosives on the crates. She got the lady one and jumped off of the crate. I took the hint, as she started moving towards me, and we moved all of the unconscious goons to the other side of a metal wall so they wouldn't die. There were still some that were conscious, like seven out of the twenty five, and they were dumb enough to keep fighting us, instead of helping they're unconscious compass, or run away from the explosion. We finished moving the unconscious ones, hog tied them quickly, then delevated and tied the ones who weren't unconscious behind the wall so they didn't die either, then ran out of the building right as the explosives went off. To leave, we had to go back into the area where the explosives were, out from behind the protective wall, so we were launched forward a little. We got up and kept running.

"That was a little close, didn't feel like giving us more than a minute and a half?" I directed towards huntress.

she looked over at me with a streight face.

"I knew we could do it, plus it was on your clock too, I shared the time to your holocommunicator, so you knew how long we had." She said. The holocommunicators were the small computers on our upper arms. They were barely noticeable, and very thin, so they didn't add extra weight. We had them strapped a little below our left shoulders, we had similar ones, but mine was cooler, and did more stuff, and both of ours were capable of a lot, but I don't feel like going into the details.

We continued running until we got to the hunt-mobile(god, we need to come up with a better name for it) and jumped in. Huntress pressed the flight button, and the car transformed. We then took off and started heading back home, to Gotham city.

~~~~~~~~~~Six years earlier~~~~~~~~~~

Laurie sat in the shotgun seat in Detective Wilson's police car. She'd come home that day from school to find an empty house. Her parents were gone, but she didn't know that, she just assumed they were out on an errand, so she'd gone over to her neighbors house and asked if she could stay and do her homework, empty houses scared a 10-year-old Laurie, and her neighbor, little old Mrs. Greenland was used to this, seeing as Laurie's parents went out for errands quite often, and was quite happy to spoil and help out the cute little girl next door with her homework and such.

But when it got dark and Laurie's parents still hadn't come over to get her, Mrs. Greenland got worried, and called Detective Wilson to make sure everything was alright. Everything in fact was not alright, because when Detective Wilson went into Laurie's house to check, a small amount of Mr. Harper's blood was on the floor of the kitchen. There was no sign of either parent and there wasn't enough blood loss for there to be death and there wasn't any sign of struggle, detective Wilson's first thought was that Laurie's parents would've been kidnapped. After a few days Laurie's mother's best friend Helena Bertinelli, had flown out to see what had happened.

So Laurie sat and watched out the window and tried to figure out the muted conversation between Mrs. Helena and Detective Wilson. She stared and stared, but eventually gave up and assumed that Detective Wilson was just filling Mrs. Helena in on how her parents were missing. they seemed to finish their conversation without Laurie noticing, and as Detective Wilson opened the car door Lorie stepped out eagerly, happy to be out of the cramped little police car.

"Laurie, do you remember Helena from the last time she visited. Your mom?" He asked.

"I think so, I was seven, right Mrs. Helena?" I replied. Mrs. Helena smiled and nodded, and looked like she was about to say something but then Detective Wilson spoke again.

"Would you be ok with going back home with Helena, just until we find your parents?" He asked.

"I know you must miss them, but while their gone, I'll do my best to take care of you." Mrs. Helena added

"Yeah!" Laurie said happily. The last time Mrs. Helena had come to visit, she played dolls with Laurie, and didn't just ignore her like her moms other friends. As you may guess she very much disliked her mothers other friends.

Laurie went home on the plane with Mrs. Helena, and when the plane landed, there was already a car waiting for Mrs. Helena. After Mrs. Helena introduced Lorie to the driver, they climbed into the backseat, and there was a man in a suit waiting to meet Laurie.

"Hello miss Harper, I am so glad to meet you, Mistress Helena has told me so much about you over the phone, when she left to visit you." The older man said.

"Laurie, this is Clinton, my families trusted, and beloved butler." Helena explained.

"Hi mister Clinton, happy to meet you to!" Laurie said, as Clinton got out of the car, and got in on the front passengers side. The back of the car was blocked off, like a fancy car Laurie had seen in a movie, so it was just Helena and Laurie.

"I know I'm not your mom, but while she is gone, I'll try my hardest to do my best and take care of you." Helena started.

"Thanks Mrs. Helena." Laurie replied sleepily.

"You don't have to call me Mrs., just Helena is fine if you'd like." She added

"Thanks... Helena, um can I go to sleep, I'm pretty sleepy." Lorie asked.

"Oh sure, I'm sure I have a pillow around here somewhere..." Helena said, but as she looked over, Laurie was already asleep.

"I'll take care of you, I know what it's like to loose your family..." She said quietly when she was sure Laurie was asleep.

The car stopped once they reached a stop, and the sudden stop shook Laurie awake. Laurie looked out the window and asked,

"Why are we stopping here, are we taking a train, or are we at an airport? And when are we going to be at your house?" Laurie asked half awake, ranting a little.

Helena giggled a little "This is my house silly."

"Really?" Laurie asked surprised.

Right as Clinton opened the door and said as Laurie looked around at the vast mansion, and the surrounding property.

"Welcome to the Bertinelli manor, miss Harper."

 **Sorry it's shortish, they get much longer I promise! Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

~~~~~~~~~~~~~Six yours later(back to present)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On our ride back from Blüdhaven, Helena, or Huntress, hesitantly started conversation.

"We need to talk about something." Helena started, and I gave her a hesitant look, but nodded for her to continue.

"So you know how I'm a member of the Justice League, right?" She said

"Yeah" I replied, urging her to go on.

"We'll have you heard of the team Young Justice?" She asked again.

"Yeah, a few things here and there, why?" I said.

"Well, now that your a little older, and more experienced, I think you'd be a valuable member to their team..." She said

"Batman asked if you'd get me to join, didn't he." I said

"Yeah... he thinks they need you, and you'd help the team a lot, he really wants you to join" she spilled.

"Are you ok with it? Like, do you want me to join the team?" I asked

"Yeah, I think it would better your skills and you'd make cool friends you can relate too, and who can help you if you need it and I'm not around." Helena said hesitantly.

I looked at her, I could tell that from a professional standpoint she was all for me going, but emotionally, she still saw me as that little girl she brought home with her so long ago it seemed.

She didn't want me too, but at the same time she knew it was best to let me join, branch out a little, and not disobey direct orders from batman, that could get ugly. It wasn't like it was going to impact my grades, I barely had to pay attention in class anyway, and I have straight A's.

I didn't really want to spend less time with Helena either, she had grown to be like my second mother, but I was also aware that it is for the best, and batman would probably flip if we said no, so looks like I'm joining a team of other sidekicks, I think. The 'few things here and there' I was referring to, were entirely unreliable resources.

We landed in the driveway silently, Clinton would have a fit if he knew we were out this late, he insisted us girls needed our 'beauty sleep'. Not that either of us were bad looking, we were both fit for obvious reasons, and were pretty attractive(not to brag or anything), Clinton just wanted Helena especially not to work herself into extinction. But just our luck, right as we came in the house, the league mission projector whirred to life, and Clinton rushed downstairs. He was about to lecture us, until he saw who was calling, and left the room. Batman had called to ask about our 'decision' about me joining the 'young justice' team.

"Huntress, have you asked Tempest yet?" Batman asked, trying not to give too much away in case she hadn't asked me yet.

"Yes, and we've come to an agreement." Helena paused "Tempest will join the young Justice team."

Batman looked satisfied with the answer "Good, zeta tube to Mount Justice tomorrow, and we'll introduce you to the rest of the team." He directed towards me and I could tell he wanted to be done with the conversation, but I was a little shocked.

"Tomorrow?" I asked. Really? I had just found out today, and now I was going to meet them tomorrow? What? I haven't even had any time to figure out who they all are, their identities, favorite things and such!

"Yes tomorrow, at around 1:00." Batman stated.

"Alright, see you then batman" Helena replied.

"Batman out" batman said, and the screen went dark.

"Well, looks like I'm meeting the team tomorrow" I directed towards Helena

"Hurry, before Clinton comes down, I love you honey, they'll love you tomorrow, goodnight!" She said. "Goodnight Helena"

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|Next Morning|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

It was 12:45 and I was dressed in my normal Tempest array, mask and everything, (no one is aloud to know my secret identity yet). My super suit was as follows, basically all black everything, except for the lines of light blue and white, similar to the ones Huntress had on her suit, but hers were purple, and a little different. Also, the very top of my black stealth books were lined with blue and white, and so was a stripe around where my ankle is on the boots. Everything else was black, and pretty similar to Huntresses, except for the mask and the cape. My mask was simpler, and didn't have horns, or the bat thingy's, whatever you want to call them, I thought they looked ridiculous. I used to wear a cape every time I left the house as tempest, but I only wear them sometimes now. It is also black, and is rimed in some places in blue and white. I also had a knife holder strapped around my left thigh, and for certain missions. I would also have a small, utility belt, sometimes with an extra knife or weapon holder attached. Since this was a 'special' occasion and I kind of wanted to impress these new 'teammates' since I would be spending a lot of time around them, so I wore my cape and my small utility belt, and my hair was in loose curls, like it always was, in a golden blonde/brown waterfall down my back. On our walk there, I thought about Huntress, and how she had become Huntress.

Huntress, before she 'adopted me' was a vigilante operating out of Gotham City, and a very, very distant member of the Bat group. For a while, long before I met her, she was a form of batgirl, but then became her own hero, taking the name Huntress. Her career was inspired by a personal vendetta against organized crime, responsible for killing her entire family. At first, her harshness towards criminals made her a little looked down upon by the heroic community, but in time she learned to temper her methods and became accepted by her peers. She has also been a member of the Justice League for years. And I was so happy when she told me she was adopting me, after my parents were still missing for about three quarters of a year, I really couldn't have asked for more when my parents were gone. Her secret identity is Helena Bertinelli, and batman still thinks her real name is Anise Bertuchii. We keep telling him he's wrong, but he won't listen.

We got to our Zeta tube and now it is 12:56. Huntress turns it on, and we identify ourselves, as it beams us to Mount Justice. We're there by 12:57, and make our way to what huntress says is the meeting area, where we see batman gathering the team members as were walking in. I check my watch right as were walking up next to the group, and it's 1:00 on the dot. Yes, on time as usual.

There are five of them.

I recognized Wally, or Kid flash, I'd met him a few times around robin when we were younger. Then there was Aqualad, who I also met a few times due to us being protégés at around same time as well. Even though I recognized them, I'd really only met them like three times in the past six years.

There were two girls and a boy, who I did not recognize. One of the girls was green, and wearing a super suit similar to Martian Manhunter's, so I assumed that she was his protégé. The other girl was obviously an archer, so I thought she must be Green Arrow's sidekick, but then again, he had spe-red arrow, so who she was, I was going to have to ask later. Where is Roy by the way, oh oops I guess he goes by red arrow now, but where is he? And then there was the boy dressed in normal clothes, and a black and red superman T-shirt. He looked like superman, a little, but way younger, and superman didn't have a son right? And what was he wearing? He must have something to do with superman, so I'll have to ask later along with the archer.

If Batman's here, then where is robin? Or I guess now he goes by Nightwing. I guess he never joined this team after becoming Nightwing. Oh well, not like I knew him all that well anyways. Huntress was soo so so happy when Nightwing came out as Nightwing, because before hand Robin had died. So she was really happy when she got the news a few months after Robin 'died' that Nightwing, who had struck out on his own: just trying it out, was actually just Robin in a different costume. And Batman had know that he didn't die, but there had to be some explanation for the public, as to why robin disappeared. Also, batman wasn't sure if Robin/Nightwing wanted anyone to know he was alive, so when Robin/Nightwing found out all of the Justice League thought he was really dead, he came back and came out as Nightwing so everyone would stop grieving. He basically died as Robin, and came back a few months later as Nightwing. The only reason I knew, or remembered this much about him was because Huntress now on a daily basis told me to 'never fake my death and strike out on my own, because she would probably just sit around for the rest of her life with guilt and depressiveness, and never come out of her room again.' Her exact words, Yes, she rants. a lot.

When we were right next to them, it was again as I said earlier, 1:00 on the dot, and batman started.

"Team, remember how I told you there would be a new addition to the team soon?" They all nodded at Batman's rhetorical question, and looked at me.

"Well this is Tempest, Huntresses protégé and she is the new addition." Batman added. The one I thought was Martian Manhunter's protégé, gave me a friendly look and a big smile, ooooo, I like her. I love friendly people, I'm one of them! The archer girl gave me a suspicious look, I need to find out who she is, and the superman kid gave me the same look. I couldn't read kid flash's face, and Aqualad kept a straight, but welcoming look about him.

"You'll all be staying here for a week, starting tomorrow." Batman paused for effect.

"You need to do team bonding, you've stopped working like a team, and more like individuals ever since Robin left, and the... Incident. There's a wall between all of you, and even though it's not really affecting your mission success, you need to start fighting like a team again, or you will start to slip." He paused again.

"I think adding a new member and having you spend time together for a while will help you face the problem and stop putting it off." He let it sink in. The team looked a little confused, probably thinking they don't have any problems, but sometimes there's things that you can only detect if your outside of the situation, like Batman was.

"Wait, so we're all moving here, for a week?" I asked, just a little confused.

"Yes, and if I feel it hasn't helped, or you could gain something from it, more time will be added. I don't think it will take more than three weeks, but you'll all stay here till I see fit."

Huntress looked horrified at Batman's idea, she didn't really want me joining the team, and now she wasn't going to see me every day? She looked at batman like 'we did not agree to this' and he said aloud

"I know but your going to do it anyway." Huntress rolled her eyes and looked away, knowing he was right.

"Wait, so are we actually sleeping here?" The archer girl asked realization eating at her expression.

Batman nodded, not inviting any more questions.

"What about..." Wally started, but Batman knowing where he was going cut him off.

"I'll tell him later." He said. I assumed he was talking about Kid Flash's parents, but I wasn't sure.

"Now all of you go to your homes, if they aren't here already, and get everything you will need for the next one-two weeks, then if it comes to it you can go home and pack for any longer, and when you all get back, give Tempest a tour of the place." He paused yet again.

The team looked me over, trying to figure me out, and I just kind of stood there awkwardly and smiled lightly. I was normally pretty good socially, but this all kind of flustered me, so I was being all awkward. Great...

Batman looked like he was going to say something else, then apparently decided against it adding

"I've alerted your schools, those of you who go to school, that you will be out for the next week, and have told them to send me only the necessary work and things needed for you to be caught up when you go back."

Wally looked exighted and said "Yes! No school, and hanging with my some of favorite people!" He exclaimed, looking at everyone and saying 'favorite people' with a joking tone.

"I'd prefer it if, other than missions, you'd stay here as much as you can, you may return to your houses if you've forgotten something, but you will only leave for short periods of time, unless all of you go somewhere together, like for team bonding stuff, but keep it on this island as much as possible." He said not really telling them, but ordering them. I knew everyone would most likely follow the rules given, probably scared of batman, and not wanting to disappoint him. This is probably the nicest I've ever seen batman, and he still looked mad, like he always does, I swear he literally has no emotions. I can't believe he's talking about bonding, Black Canary probably told him what to say.

"I will call you to assign missions." He said gesturing towards the big computer behind him, and walking towards the zeta tubes. Huntress waved to me, and followed him out, she'd give me a proper goodbye when I came to pack my things later.


	3. Chapter 3

Once the team was sure Batman and huntress were gone, they turned their attention to me.

The girl I thought was Martian Manhunter's protégé rushed towards me and gave me a big, quick hug, and I was taken aback at first surprised, but then gladly hugged her back, then she let go and looked me in the eyes.

"I'm so happy your joining the team! We really needed more girls, it gets a little boring with all of the boys around." She said.

"Happy to" I responded.

"What should I call all of you, I mean we'll be here for a while, so I should learn your names and such." I started. Then I added "I have to warn you though, I'm horrible with names."

"Well I'm Miss Martian, but you can call me by my name M'gann, or my earth name Megan." She paused then went on. "That is super boy, or Conner, and this is Artemis, and..." She said, pointing to the boy with the superman T-shirt, and then to the archer girl. She was going to go on, but Aqualad interrupted her

"I'm Aqualad, or Kaldur'ahm but you can call me Kaldur." Aqualad said. I already knew who he was, and he knew who I was but I didn't say anything.

"I'm Kid Flash, but you can call me Wally." I knew him as well, and he knew me, but again, I didn't say anything.

"Do you have a name that you go by?" M'gann asked.

"Sorry, just Tempest, for now, I have to discuss with Huntress if it is alright with her, you learning my secret identity could lead to others figuring out her identity, ect."

"That's ok, Robin never told us his identity, so it's not like we don't expect it." Wally replied.

"Welcome to the team Tempest, we're all looking forward to fighting alongside you." Kaldur Said.

"Now there's seven of us, this next week going to be so fun!" M'gann said.

I hesitated, then counted them, and including me there were six of us.

I looked at them confused.

"Whose the seventh?" I asked.

Without me, or anyone else seeing someone had dropped down from where they were hiding and crept up behind me and said.

"Me." And as they said it they put their hand on my shoulder.

It was barely on my shoulder for a second before I grabbed their arm, and in one swift motion flipped them over and pushed them in the air, a few yards away front of me. I kinda knew they weren't a threat, but at the time whoever this was scared me really, really bad, and I kind of just reacted on instinct. Oops.

I looked down after catching my breath, I was still kinda jumpy, creepy person lurking in the shadows, and then I saw him, on the floor about 6 feet away. I think it was Nightwing, though I wasn't sure, I'd never actually met him in this costume, just his Robin one. I figured out he was the seventh member and before anyone could even react about me flipping him over, I rushed over and half bent over to help him up.

"Sorry, you startled me." I said reaching out my hand to help him up.

He looked kind of surprised, but took my hand.

"Thanks" he said as he got up with my help.

The team looked a little confused as to what just happened, and a few of them looked just as scared of Nightwing's entry as I had been.

"What were you thinking." Artemis directed at Nightwing.

"What could you have possibly hoped to accomplish with that?" She added with an attitude.

"I wanted to see her reaction, seeing what her reflexes would do, what her instincts were." He replied.

"And I wanted to scare miss newbie over here." He added almost whispering.

Everyone erupted into conversation, mainly saying things like 'so there was no relevant reason for you to do that' and 'you could have scared her away!' and 'everything you just said is a load of crap, you weren't testing her you just wanted to scare us'. He laughed really quietly at the chaos he caused, and I almost started laughing too, but I was kinda mad, so I wouldn't give him the satisfaction. When everyone quieted down, we all just kind of looked at him like 'WTF dude' until I got bored of looking at him, and broke the silence.

"I'm thinking now would be a good time for everyone to get their things if they need them for our 'vacation' before another conversation starts, not to be bossy or anything, but we're all just kind of staring at him, and not doing anything productive." I said.

"Sure that sounds good" Artemis said.

"Yeah" "sure" "cool" I heard from no the rest of them, all agreeing. Aqualad, Artemis, Wally, Nightwing, and I made our way to the Zeta tubes, while Conner and M'gann went to their rooms, they said they lived here full time.

I was the third one to leave, plugging in the coordinates of Huntress's Zeta tube. Our Zeta tube was in Huntress's second base. I beamed through and took my motorcycle to Huntresses main base, under our house.

Once I parked and went up the secret entrance, Helena was waiting for me.

"Well that was... Unexpected." Helena said.

"Completely." I replied and we smiled at each other. I knew Helena wasn't really extatic about me joining the team. I didn't really see the harm, but I really didn't know anything about any of them. We had been walking to the stairs, and when we had gotten there's he stopped. She looked like she wanted to come with me, but stopped. I wasn't sure why.

"Can you come up and help me pack?" I asked, I knew she wanted to, and I wanted her company for the last hour or so before I left for mount Justice.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~~|~|~ time skip ~|~|~~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

After packing everything I might have possibly needed, time passers, technology, equipment, workout clothes, regular clothes, accessories, a few bikinis and a sportswear one piece, hangout clothes, hairbrush, curling iron, the makeup I usually wore, toiletries, shoes, a few of my super suits(I had quite a few of my normal Tempest outfit, and my little utility belt, weapon holders, and such in case they got damaged), things to make Mount Justice feel more like my home away from home, sheets, my comforter, and pillows, a few sports things(that didn't have my name on them, just in case someone snooped around my room), etc., Basically everything I may possible need in the next one-two weeks. We went downstairs so I could say goodbye to Clinton. Hey, I'd rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it. I was surprised at how much I fit in two suitcases. Instead of being Huntress and Tempest, we should just retire become Helena and Laurie, the super amazing suitcase packers. The driver, Frankie, carried one suitcase, Clinton carried the other, and I carried my backpack which held the personal things that didn't fit in the suitcases, like my phone, iPad, and things like that. I gave Clinton one more hug before getting into the car with Helena and driving off to Helena's second base. Frankie, The driver stopped the car in front of an old abandoned building, which Helena actually owned, but didn't want to look suspicious around these parts, so she just left it like this above ground. Underground was where the Helena's second base was, with extra super suits and equipment, training areas and equipment, and the Zeta tubes.

We stopped in front of the Zeta tubes, and I gave Frankie and Helena another hug while plugging in the mount Justice coordinates and announcing myself, and I beamed to Mount Justice.

Once I beamed to Mount Justice, I gathered up my suitcases as I walked towards the meeting area. M'gann said she'd meet me here to show me where my room was, and then give me a tour of Mount Justice. She came walking out of what I assumed was the kitchen, and walked over to me.

"Hey, so I just got all of the room assignments from batman, everyone has pretty much had the same rooms since we got the place, but he wanted to make sure there were no arguments. Everything's pretty much the same, except he added you to the list." She told me.

"That's Cool" I replied.

"Yeah, and your room is right next to mine and Artemis's!" She said happily.

I smiled, and gestured for her to lead me to it.

We walked to what looked like the living quarters. There were eight doors, four on each side of the hallway. The doors were really far apart, leading me to believe that the rooms were pretty big. Meagan pointed to her door, then Artemis's, then mine. There was one other door, but I didn't really mind who it was. Super boy probably hearing us opened his door right when we were about to go into mine.

"Hey Conner, you want to come and tour the place with me and Tempest?" M'gann asked.

"Nah, I'm good here." He replied kind of eying me skeptically.

"Ok" she said as we walked through my door

The walls of my room were a light, pailish yellow, and most of the furnature was white.I left my suitcases in my room, and followed M'gann out of the living area. We walked to what I assumed was the 'front door' and then we stopped.

"Ok, so this is the front door, that is the hanger, that's sphere and my bios ship..." She showed me around the whole place, except for this top floor she said was Red Tornados place. She showed me the medical room, the workout room, the showers and locker rooms, the training room, the lounge, the living room, the kitchen, the souvenir room, and every other room, from the front entrance, to the back entrance, and everything in between. When we were done we went back to the mission area, and I pretty much knew where everything was if I needed it. In the mission area M'gann started

"Ok, so like Batman said earlier that he would give us missions, this is where we get missions from him, and sometimes other League members, but mostly batman. After we get our missions then we would sometimes if the mission calls for it split up into squads directed by Aqualad. He is technically the team leader, but most of the time we forget he is, because he treats all of us as equals, not in ranks." She said.

"That's cool." I said genuinely.

This was the last place to be toured before we were done, so we walked back to the living quarters.

"Well now you know your way around, I'll leave you to get settled in and stuff." She said

"The rest of the team should be here in a few." She added before leaving me outside my door.

I walked inside and took out my suitcase. Before coming Helena had insisted on me bringing two chairs I had at home here, I might have had a few too many I'm my room, and she wanted me to get rid of them and I am much too stubborn for my own good, so she had told me to come get them from next to the zeta tubes after my tour, which M'gann hadn't allowed me to, and had levitated the three chairs into my room with ease. Hoo, that was a long thought. Well ok then. So there were three chairs in this room, other than the furniture already in here.

I went inside and unpacked my things, deciding where everything should go. I finished unpacking everything, and put the empty suitcases in a corner of the small walk in closet. This closet wasn't as big as my other one, but it was better than no closet. I was actually surprised at how nice the rooms here were. I guess the Justice League had a big budget. I wasn't complaining though, I was very happy with it, and it wasn't like I was going from my room at Bertinelli manor, to a room the size of my bathroom, it wasn't the big change I was expecting. Yet another reason the place felt more like home. The rest of Mount Justice was really roomy too, nice and spread out, there was a lot of room. It was nice, I liked it. When I finished unpacking, I wondered what all of my friends elsewhere were doing, then I heard a loud crash coming from a ways outside of my room.


	4. Chapter 4

Once I finished unpacking, I walked outside to see most of the team having a conversation. The only person missing was Wally. Right as I walked up, wally zoomed over with some sort of sandwich. I walked up to the group and started:

"Hi" I said trying to start conversation.

"Hi" "What's up" "Hey" "hi." "Hi" they each greeted back. But that was all they said. Then they were kind of looking at each other like they were having a conversation, but no sound was coming out. A few times they'd all look at me, or one of them would gesture towards me and they'd continue making conversation faces, and I felt really weird.

"Um, can you guys read each other's minds, or do you know each other so well you can just look at each other to have a conversation?" I asked confused.

"Ohh, sorry, I forgot, I can establish a solid mink link between us, so we don't have to carry walkie talkies, or talk during missions, I can just link us and no one else's can hear us." M'gann said.

"Ohh..." I said as they went back to their 'mind link' conversation for a few seconds, before I added:

"Ok, well I'm gonna go..." I said softly backing up slowly, hoping to get away unnoticed. This was getting awkward and I was getting bored

Wait, sorry we're in the middle of something" I heard from no one in particularbut I just waved them off and said:

"No, no it's fine, I'm just, gonna, leave." I Didn't really mind, but I felt awkward just standing there so I just wanted to leave. I walked back towards my room. I turned around a couple times and Artemis, M'gann, and Wally were giving the others looks. I just went into my room and changed into workout/training clothes; black leggings with a thin sweatshirt/overshirt over a sports shirt, and my workout Tempest mask. I always had to wear a mask, or big sunglasses. My identity was still a secret, at least for the time being. It wasn't like bad or anything for the team to not know, I mean they still didn't know what Nightwing's secret identity is so its not like I'm the first or anything. My workout mask had this special fabric on the inside layer that did something with sweat, and pores so the top half of my face that the mask usually covered could 'breathe' when I sweat, so the mask was always dry, even if I sweat a lot. It actually came in handy very often, and because of the special fabric, my mask wouldn't slide around on my face when my face was really sweaty. Even though in the gym at Bertinelli Manor, I didn't have to wear a mask, sometimes Huntress would tell me to bring it when we went to follow a lead in hotter climates, so it wouldn't be a distraction. I looked at myself in the mirror before leaving the room. I Had a thin frame, and was tall. Up until seventh grade I was taller than most of the boys in the grade and I hated it. I noticed my hair was a rich shade of brown, with blonde and golden highlights from the sun in some places, which was down, rolling in waves around my upper body. I put my hair up in a ponytail realizing I had forgotten about it, and grabbed my things. I poked my head outside, and they weren't there, so I slung my little sports duffle bag over my shoulder, and went the most discrete and unnoticeable way I remembered to get to the workout/training by yourself room. There was another training room, that was used when two or more of us were training against each other, but I was going to train solo right now, so I went to the solo workout room. To my relief, when I got there there was no one else there. There was other more advanced combed training, but I stuck with the old fashioned dummy, and my limbs as my only weapon. I was looking at it, when I realized it had a switch on the back of its head, where the neck met the head. It looked pretty durable, it didn't look like I could break it too easily, so I switched it on and waited for something to happen. I was an acrobat, a martial artist, I danced, and was skilled in hand to hand combat, and a few other things, like Huntress. Since Helena told me she was Huntress and asked me to 'join her' I've wanted to be just like her. She was my role model, but we were also very, very different. For one I was a lot more bubbly, and fun. And more friendly and more outgoing. I was really nice, and had a humorous personality.

It didn't move for a solid thirty seconds so I stepped towards it, and it suddenly charged at me. I dogged by flipping over it, and kicking it where a humans kidneys would have been on there back. Once I backed up it walked back to where it had been before I turned it on and waited for me to strike again. Then I realized there was a circle that he could barely walk two steps in any direction without stepping out, that he was standing in the middle of. It must be programmed to stay in the circle unless an outside force acts upon it. As I was trying to figure out the thing, and how it worked, I was jumping in circles around it. It swung, and kicked and lunged but the attempts never even hit me. I was quick, granted it was a machine, but it got a hit in, and had kicked my legs out of balabce while I was jumping and I fell a little, stumbled, but eventually regained my balance. I was a whirlwind jumping, around, leaping over, and basically thinking out side the box and practicing my fighting style, which was fighting using creativity and unpredictability, strategizing my next move, so the 'enemy was unable to predict what I was going to do next. I was having fun and trying to figure out what this thing was programmed to do, when I felt something. It was kinda a tug in my stomach that made me feel a little suspicious. I continued fighting the dummy, gosh this thing was fast and agile for whatever machine or thing it was. I've never seen such good combat training equipment.

"You know, it'd be easier if you fought with some sort of weapon." Someone said.

Not wanting to take my eye of of the dummy, I said

"Where's the fun in that." I replied in the general direction of the person with a smirk.

I leapt backwards dodging an attempt from the dummy, and was far enough away that I could get a head start. I ran towards it, and jumped into the air. I flipped around so it looked for a second I was doing a handstand on the dummy's head, I then quickly reached over to the switch and shut it off, while pushing off of its head and propelling myself into the air, turning as I went, so I landed on my feet behind the dummy.

I turned and looked at Artemis. No one had really seen me fight on the team yet, and she looked like she was observing me, and it made me feel a little unsettled. I hated attention, and really disliked I walked over to where Artemis was standing, and noticed she wasn't dressed in his super suit, he was in workout clothes, like me. She also was still wearing a mask, I think it was different than the one he had on earlier, but I wasn't sure. He probably came here wanting to practice tonight thinking no one else would be here, but bam, here I am, new girl and all.

"Not many people have lasted that long against bob." Artemis said A little bluntly and monotone like she was still seek g what I would do, but I think she was being humorous. I think.

I laughed a little uneasily then replied.

"Thanks!" I replied not sure how to take her observation.

"Bob?" I then added. THat is what she said right? That's what they came up with. They could have come up with something totally badass and they chose bob? What did I get myself into?

"He has no name, so to us he's just bob the training dummy." She said.

"Oh, yeah we talked about the schedule for tonight a little after you left, and we agreed the first to see you would give you the brief explanation." She started and I nodded. When I'd first met her a few hours ago she looked at me like I was a piece of meat. Her expression was changing more to me being a human, and not something dead, she was funny, and I hope we become friends. She seems sarcastic, and I like people like that.

"So dinner is in about an hour, then after dinner were going to go out and play some kind of sport for a while, and then come in and watch a few movies or something. Not sure what we'll do after that, we didn't get that far." She ended. Then she added. "So just meet us in the kitchen at like 4:15 and we'll all talk and whatever then." She finished.

"Ok thanks." I said back.

"Do you know what kind of sport were going to play?" I asked.

"No, we'll probably decide that over dinner, but we have equipment for just about any modern sport used by humans. We also have some Martian sports too, they're always fun." He answered.

"Cool" I said.

"See you then" I added,

i walked over, got to my little sports duffle, and pulled out my water before putting the strap over my shoulder, and walking out of the room. I remembered how to get back to my room, and walked, again through the halls as unnoticeable as possible. I was still in workout clothes and didn't really want to talk to anyone before dinner, so I could at least I could freshen up before someone else struck up a conversation with me.

If any of you have questions, recommendations, or whatever, feel free to ask, I'm going to be starting posting answers to reviews on my next chapters. Thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

I thankfully got back to my room, and slipped inside without anyone noticing. Ok, what to wear that isn't too dressy, but not too casual either. I would have worn what I usually wear to dinner, but, that would be too dressy, Helena and I liked to dress nicely for dinner, especially when there were friends over, but I was pretty certain they didn't do that here, so I just went with clothes I would wear if I was going out to hang with friends, or something along those lines. I dressed in light blue short shorts and a soft, grey long sleeve shirt that had a neck cut that went just under my collarbone, but went out to the sides, so the shirt was just covering the ends of my shoulders. I did my hair up in a bun, a few small strands sticking out in places. Ugh, I could never get all of them in right. I put on a little makeup, barely any, but because I wasn't showering it made me feel better to put a little on, so at least I was a little clean looking. I hate feeling dirty. When I was done, I put on my sunglasses, and I still had a half an hour left, so I went to see who was cooking, or preparing dinner in the kitchen, and to see if they wanted any help. I didn't feel like wearing one of my masks to dinner, so I just wore my big, aviator sunglasses, which were like those one way mirrors. They looked like regular sunglasses, but they were a little darker and had the mirror effect so I could see out clearly but no one would see my eyes at all. I remembered the way to the kitchen, and walked in slowly, to see only M'gann cooking, and different things flying out of the cupboards and towards her when she needed them, and she was looking a little tiny bit stressed. I probably caught her at a bad time so I stood there for a minute till everything mostly stopped moving around the room, because I didn't want to scare her, and have everything go falling to the ground. I'd met Martian Manhunter a few times, so I was familiar with telepathic abilities. I stepped forward trying to make myself noticeable and not scare her, and asked.

"Hey, do you need any help, I finished early and have nothing to do, I'm an ok-ish cook if you need any help." I asked her. She jumped a little. I guess even with all of my efforts she was too focused on her cooking to sense I was here. She looked over and smiled immediately. I wasn't one to talk though. When I wasn't on patrol, or really focusing, I was really ditsy, and unaware of what is going on around me.

"Oh, yeah sure! No one's really interested in the making of the food, just eating it. Boys will be boys! And Artemis just eats it too..." She drifted out of her statement. Then we giggled and laughed a little and she motioned me over.

"Ok, so we're making Italian tonight, angel hair pasta and meatballs, garlic bread, and cookies, and vanilla cupcakes for dessert." She said.

"That's a lot for one person, glad I came. Ok, so what do you want me to do?" I asked. Even though Clinton makes about this much on a daily basis, it was a lot of cooking for a teenager who looked like she wasn't completely used to cooking yet, and seemed very flustered. Again, I wasn't really one to talk, I'm like always flustered.

"Uh, whatever you want I guess." She said.

"Have you made the sauce yet?" I asked.

"I was just planning on using stuff out of the can..." She said looking at the can unopened on the counter warily, then smiling afterwards.

"Would you make sauce? It would make it taste much better than canned stuff if you wouldn't mind." She added

"Sure, I see your doing the meatballs, and pasta, and I think that's cookie dough over there, so I'll do the sauce, the garlic bread, and vanilla cupcakes." I said.

"Unless, you want to do everything but the sauce, that's totally cool too, whatever is most convenient." I added.

"Actually, splitting it in half would be really helpful, thanks." She said smiling.

"Thanks so much, I'm always the only one who cooks meals, unless someone offers, which is pretty rare since not many of us live here full time, and no one ever helps." She said again.

"Totally! I love cooking, it's so fun!" I replied as I put an apron on.

"Is that the cookie dough, over there, it is right? What kind of cookies are you making?" I asked.

"Chocolate chip, it's the most general, and the most people like it." She said.

"May I?" I asked picking up the mixing spoon, so I could try some. She nodded, and I plucked a blueberry sized chunk, and plopped it in my mouth, taste testing it.

It was a little flavorless, so I asked.

"Could I add some more into it to give it more flavor, not cool if I do? I know some people don't like people messing with their ingredients." I asked.

"Oh sure, I don't mind, I make cookies all the time. They never turn out quite right if you ask me. They're my favorite food to make though." She replied.

I looked around the kitchen, going in cupboards and getting ingredients, and bringing them back, I had made two piles in two minutes flat. I set out a pile by a big bowl for the pasta sauce I was making, and another smaller pile near the cookie dough. When I had gotten everything I needed I went over to the cookie dough, and looked at what I had gathered. I to,d M'gann what I was planning on putting in beforehand, in case she didn't want something in it or whatever.

"So, I'm planning on putting in a little vanilla extract, a little more sugar, and brown sugar." She nodded. I'm not parinoid, I just didn't want her to be mad at me if I put something in it she didn't like, and was extra cautious so that wouldn't happen. Ok, maybe I'm a little parinoid.

"It's ready to put chocolate chips now." I said.

"Ok." She said. Smiling, and then plopped a small piece in her mouth.

She looked at me with an expression like 'mm, pretty good' then turned around. I worked on making the sauce and garlic bread. Clinton taught me to cook. We had really fun times in the kitchen making various foods, and I loved cooking for Helena, even when I was way less experienced and my food tasted like dirt she'd tell me it was great. I'm not entirely sure that it still doesn't taste like dirt, but whatever. At least I can make dirt.

After I finished those two, which was fairly quick, I made the cupcakes, and while they were baking, I made the icing. When I was done I cleaned up a little bacause M'gann had gone to the supply room to get some more flour, and when she came back she looked at me.

"You didn't have to clean, or set the table, or anything, I have telepathy, I could have done all that at the same time." She said.

"Oh, I got bored and had extra time, no biggy." I said a little uneasy. She was a little overwhelming, but I liked her.

"I'm going to run to the bathroom, and make sure I don't have flour all over me." I told her.

"I'll be back in a few!" I told her as I left.

I heard an "Ok" from the other room as I walked. I went into the bathroom, and looked at myself in the mirror. I really looked exactly the same as I did before I came into the kitchen, the apron worked pretty well, I'm usually a messy cooker, but thanks to the apron, I got absolutely nothing on my clothes, anywhere. My face and hands however were a different story. My face just had flour on my nose, but there were fingerprint sized dots all over my forearms. I washed it off, and returned to the mirror. I was kind of self centered. Not like I didn't care, I knew what other people were doing and cared and was compassionate and empathetic, but I was always concerned with how I act and look. I was a little insecure too, but not very much. I hid it well though, most people would never guess it, but I was. I mean, I knew I was pretty, and have a friendly outgoing personality, and most people liked me, but I was always worrying.

I left the bathroom and went back into the kitchen to take my cupcakes out, and finish frosting them. It was 4:12 and people started coming into the dining room and talking and sitting down.

We all got our food and I sat down next to M'gann. On M'gann's other side was Artemis, and on my other side was Wally. It was an oval shaped table, so I could see everyone pretty well

"Yes! I'm so happy everyone liked it!" M'gann said to Artemis and I. We were talking in the kitchen, while Wally and Conner were washing the dishes.

"It was really good, I thought it was anyway" M'gann said. We giggled a little, this was all she had talked about for the last three minutes.

Kaldur came in the kitchen, so now all seven of us were in the same room

"Since most of us are not in clothes to wear during sporting activities, we should meet outside at

Around 4:50, since it is 4:40 now, so everyone can change and get everything we need for the sport." He finished and was about to walk away, but I needed to ask a question.

"Um, what sport will we be playing?" I asked.

"Just to be prepared." I added.

"We have not decided, but we have equipment for everything, so just dress in sportswear." Kaldur replied, and everyone dissipated, and went to their rooms.

I got dressed in sports clothes, and my workout mask that I had washed before dinner (thank god I had washed it) and headed out the door. Nightwing was a little ahead of me, so I walked up with him.

"So, what sport do you think we're playing?" I asked.

"I don't know, probably soccer, or football, or lacrosse or something on a field, since we're meeting outside, and not in one of the gyms." He said.

"Cool, I'll probably run into someone, or something, or start going the wrong way." I said laughing, and successfully lightening the mood. He looked a little unsettled when I'd first walked up to him, but all traces of that were gone.

"So how old are you?" He asked me.

"Can't say yet, I've got to talk to huntress about what is appropriate to disclose, and what isn't. How old are all of you?" I said, I made it more pleasant than saying no, I guess.

"Well, Kaldur recently turned 17, M'gann, and Conner are all physically around 16-17-ish, not really sure exactly, I'm 15, and Wally and Artemis are 16, Close-ish to 17." He said 'little one' with distaste, then continued. What is with all the ish's?

"So first, are you between the ages of 15 and 17?" He asked.

"Yes." I replied simply.

"Are you..." He started but I cut him off.

"No, that's it, no." I said laughing a little.

He laughed a little at me.

"Are you 12 and not telling us?" He asked sarcastically.

"Your the youngest." I replied sarcastically, even though I was his age. I'd thought they were all my age 15, 16 tops, but they were a little older than I expected

We laughed a little, and were still a little ways from the doors that went outside, so I decided to ask him something I had been wondering about.

"So what happened, when you changed, what happened with everyone, especially batman?" I asked him. I didn't want to go right out and say why aren't you Robin anymore, could have been taken rudely and thankfully he got where I was going and hed replied.

"I got tired of everyone thinking of me as that little kid. I was more experienced than most of the team, and most of them treated me like I was a seven year old who needed to be protected more than anyone else, I mean I was only two years younger than the oldest members of the team. I was however a lot smaller than I am now, I had a huge growth spurt recently. At first I left, after batman fought with me and wanted too take me off the team, we had had a really close call, and he was treating me like I couldn't take care of myself. That was the last straw for me, so I left, and made a new hero for myself, in Blüdhaven, because there was no official superhero in that city. I mean, you and huntress came in sometimes, but not as often as what was needed, that place really needed a hero. Once I found out from a... source how worried batman was, he thought I was dead, and so did the rest of the league, I came back and told him I was ok, and I wanted to try working on my own a for a little while, because I was frustrated. He eventually agreed and came to his senses, and approved of it, and I told him I'd be back in a month or two and we could be back to mostly normal, except, you know not treating me like I was a seven year old, and me being Nightwing, instead of Robin. So I went back to Blüdhaven assuming batman would tell all of the other heroes of the Justice League, and the team that I wasn't dead. When I heard he didn't, and had said I died, I guess he thought that's what I wanted him to do, I immediately came back, and told everyone I didn't die. They all thought I had been dead for like a month and a half, and I felt really bad. They were a lot more upset than I thought they would be, the only reason I found out they thought I was dead, was because it was on the news how hard they were taking it. They started being less successful in stopping organized crime, and failing Justice league missions. I do everything I did before with batman, we are still the dynamic duo, and I'm not mad at him anymore. Almost everything is the same, except most of the team and the league got the message and treat me less like a child and more like the rest of the team, and my superhero identity is different. And still No one has figured out my secret identity." He said the last part a little smugly.

He had this down pretty well, I guess he had to explain it a lot. I nodded and said.

"Yeah Huntress was really happy when you told everyone you weren't dead. Like really really happy. And she's almost never happy when she's huntress." I said humorously.

"She now tells me on a daily basis that if I ever do anything like that, she'd probably quit superhero-ing and rethink her life choices." I said this humorously as well, successfully lightening the mood, and making the conversation more lighthearted. I didn't want it to get awkward, that wasn't exactly the topic to talk about. By now, we had just gone through the doors that led outside, and were almost to where a few of the team was. Artemis, and Conner were there, and I thought I just saw Wally run out from behind us, and meet the other two a little ways in front of us. When we got closer, I went and stood next to Artemis and Nightwing stood closer to Conner and Wally.

"Hey, how's it going?" I asked.

"Good, you?" She replied.

"Yeah, kind of exighted." I said.

"Are you athletic?" She asked bluntly.

"Yeah, I guess. Depends on what you consider athletic." I replied a little hesitant.

"Are you athletic?" I asked

"Yeah" she replied.

"What sport do you think we'll do?" I asked Her.

"I don't know, we'll probably play something like soccer, or football tonight, and then something indoor tomorrow, like basketball or volleyball, then later in the week, sports that require more equipment and skill, like lacrosse, field hockey, or something like that. We do stuff like this sometimes, and that's usually the pattern." She said. We talked with the others a little before Kaldur and M'gann got to us, and I managed to somehow get superboy to laugh when the rest of us were laughing at a comment I made. It was kind of strange, it was so happy and lighthearted, the sound didn't really go with his persona. He looked like he didn't laugh often, and it made me happy I could, even his smile looked like he didn't do it often. Once M'gann and Kaldur were close, we

It was 4:51 and Kaldur asked.

"Wait, what happened?" He asked looking at everyone's faces, and I looked around too. I hadn't really noticed but a few of them were looking at me surprised. I guess superboy didn't laugh often. Everyone including me laughed a little at Kaldur's expression and question.

"So what sport are we doing?" Wally asked.

It was 4:51 and Kaldur asked.

"Wait, what happened?" He asked, and everyone laughed a little.

"So what sport are we doing?" Wally asked.


	6. Chapter 6

"Uh, does everyone know how to play tennis?" Conner asked.

"Ehh", "Erm", "Not really" I heard from the circle. I guess they didn't like tennis much, then again it wasn't really a team sport.

"How about Hockey?" Wally asked. Our circle had the same reaction

"Soccer?" Conner asked in response to they're uncertainty.

Everyone either nodded or agreed I just went along with it. I liked soccer and all, but liked watching it. I wasn't very good at it, I was just good at the running part. I was really fast and agile, and my long legs just added to that, so Im just more fast and agile than most people. Then again most people haven't been training with a superhero since they were ten and a half.

Wally ran to get a soccer ball from a building jutting out from the side of Mount justice

Then we started making teams. It ended up being uneven because we had 4-3. The field looked kind of empty with only the seven of us. The teams ended up being me, Artemis, Wally and Conner. The other team was M'gann, Nightwing and Kaldur. They weren't really sure which team to put me on, they didn't know how I played, or how athletic I was.

"And please, no superpowers." Kaldur said and the super powered half of us groaned.

"This is usually how it is, just try not to use them, to make the teams fair." Kaldur added after the groans from our super powered teammates.

"Fine" most of them muttered.

"Ok, I'll jump ball." Wally said. Conner was jumping from our team, and Kaldur was jumping for the other, and Wally was throwing it up in the air. Wally threw it up, and ran a few meters away. Kaldur got it, and passed to M'gann on accident, and she kicked it a little further getting passed Wally, but the Artemis got it from her and started dribbling up field. I jogged ahead of her in case she needed someone to pass too, once I was ahead of her I jogged. She got past M'gann and Nightwing was running after her. Kaldur was further back on defense, and was heading towards Artemis.

"I'm up field!" I told her, making sure she knew I was there. Then Nightwing caught up to her, and Kaldur was almost to her and she tried to pass but Kaldur intercepted. It was a good idea, waiting till they got really close, then passing up the field, but it was predictable. Kaldur intercepted, and I jogged back to go on defense, if he got that far. I jog alongside him, until he got across the middle line. Then I sprint a little ahead of him and did a jay tackle. I know or I at least think that a jay tackle isn't a soccer move, it was a field hockey tackle, but it wasn't against the rules... I think. I play field hockey, track, and volleyball. I played basketball last year, but am not doing in this year. Sometimes sports are hard to fit it in to my schedule, while fighting organized crime with huntress, but my coaches like me, and don't mind if I have to miss a few practices here and there.

So my mindset is field hockey, and mostly everyone else was expecting soccer tackles and strategies. So please excuse the terms I use for plays and such, they probably aren't from soccer, I wouldn't know if they were... they might be... I don't know... I don't play soccer... And I am not observant whatsoever.

I jay tackled Kaldur, and headed back the other way. Most of the team wasn't expecting my non-soccer-like approach, and since field hockey isn't very common any wear else in the U.S. but the eastern coast, they were trying to figure out what I was doing. I think Artemis figured it out, which surprised me because there weren't really any field hockey activities or teams in star city, where Green Arrow lived. Maybe she lived somewhere else. I'll have to ask. Even I had to drive a few hours to get to my field hockey camps and winter leagues, other that the school season, and preseason. My school was one of the only ones in Gotham that offered field hockey. Which I was very happy about when Helena enrolled me there. I came from further on the east coast, where field hockey was a lot more common. I used to play with my parents when I was little, it was our Family go-to activity. At first I didn't like it, but when I did it with my family, it grew on me. Then my parents went missing and it was one of the things that I had left of them. I quit for a few years when my parents died. I didn't really think of them often, my parents, it made me sad, I like to think of the positives in life. But I ended up being pretty good at the sport when I tried it again a few years after Helena officially adopted me. So I stuck with it.

Artemis, seemed to figure out what I was doing and sprinted up the field. Even though she was a ways ahead of me I ended up passing her as I was sprinting up the field. Kaldur and M'gann were on offense at the moment, because Kaldur had the ball a few seconds ago, so Nightwing had staid back on defense. Thank goodness for their team he had, because both Artemis and I were sprinting towards him, Kaldur not far behind, and M'gann a ways back. I got to about the 25 yard line, but I wasn't very good at dribbling, I almost tripped over the ball a few times, so it was a really loose dribble, I kicked the ball a little ways I front of me and ran after it. The only reason I was even staying in front of Kaldur was because I was fast. I headed straight towards Nightwing. Once I was right in front of him, the most obvious thing to do was pass right to Artemis, so he prepared for me to go right. I saw this, and made it look like I was going to go right, until the last second, when I did a left pull, which was a little difficult using my feet, and a big clunky ball. But I pulled off, and after getting around him, I passed to Artemis who was wide open, and ready to receive my pass. Kaldur was running back to goal on defense. And I had sprinted to post, just as Kaldur had gotten into the goal. Artemis got a little closer, and shot, the ball hitting the top of the goal and bouncing in with a Cling. I cheered and ran over to high five Artemis.

"Nice shot! That was great!" I said

"Yeah! You too!" She said as we high fived and jogged back to the center line. The rest of the game went mostly like this. I had to go back on defense a few times when Conner and Wally were struggling with M'gann and Nightwing. They scored a few goals, but I had a few more nice breakaways, it was especially fun because once I get past the defenders I could just run and move forward, not worrying to much about them in front of me. And I loved running. The game ended 5-4 with my team winning. We did have one more person than the other team, which was a considerable advantage. It was really fun, I enjoyed it.

Me and Artemis just kind of ended up walking next to Nightwing and Wally, so it was Artemis on one side of me, Wally on the other side, and Nightwing next to him.

"I still can't believe you made Super boy laugh, and it's still your first day!" Wally said. Before the game I was talking to super boy and said some funny comment and he busted out laughing. I'd never heard him laugh, and it was obvious he didn't do it often. I laughed at Wally's remark.

"So, uh what do we do now?" I asked.

"Walk inside." was all Wally replied.

"Ugh, you are beyond annoying." She directed at Wally.

"We're heading in to shower and you know, get ready for bed. Then we'll probably meet in the lounge for a movie." She added.

We walked inside everyone was going to shower and get pajamas on, and got ready for bed and a movie. I showered and put on maroon pajama sweatpants, in the joggers style. With that I put on a lounge around the house shirt, and little sports socks you'd wear under sneakers. I also had on my third mask, the one that was just kinda plain, thin, and was most friendly looking, and softer, just for hanging out and things like that. It was a cute outfit, and really comfy. I left my room, and walked over to the lounge area. A few people were already over there. I walked over and plopped down next to the person in the middle of the couch, good, enough room on the other side of me to fit M'gann and Artemis. I looked over to who I sat next to, and I was next to Nightwing. He had a small bowl with these large grape sized chocolate things, and he was eating them and they looked good, so I hovered my hand over the bowl he was holding, and I looked at him to make sure it was ok and he gave me a 'sure' look.

I took one and popped it into my mouth. Yum.

I gave him 'Hey, what's up with you, those chocolate things were really good!' facial expressions, I was way too lazy to actually talk right now, plus I was enjoying the chocolate ball and didn't want to open my mouth. He then looked a little surprised before he responded with

'Pretty good, I know they're great right! I still can't believe you made Conner laugh. How'd you even do that?' Facial expressions. Then he followed with facial expressions like

'Wait, why aren't we talking out loud? Is there a significant reason or just...?'. I kind of cut him off with

'I'm too lazy, and I'm still eating that amazing chocolate thing. Give me another one.' I grabbed another one from the little bowl he was holding and again plopped into my mouth. His face showed fake sorrow at me taking another, and I laughed, because he looked completely ridiculous. I hadn't noticed Conner sitting next to Nightwing until he looked annoyed.

"She can bat-talk too? Seriously, it's awkward enough when you and Batman do it, now we have another one?" He asked a little humorously, but a little serious too.

"No offense... But still..." He directed towards me.

Just when we were going to respond, M'gann walked in with Artemis a little behind her, and sat down next to me. Then Artemis sat next to her, and Wally who was just coming in looked at the occupied couch and frowned.

"Ugh, the couch is always filled up before I get in here!" He said pouting while sitting in a chair near the couch.

"What do you mean when you get here, don't you have super speed, can't you just get here first?" I asked humorously, and a little confused. If he had super speed and got here first, the couch wouldn't be occupied. Why didn't he just use it to get here first? Ok maybe I was more than a little confused. The lounge was set up with a long couch facing the big TV, and two love seats on each side of the couch aimed towards each other, but also on an angle that they could still see the TV without turning. There was a nice carpet on the ground, and a few bean bags and other lounge seats around the room. Everyone sat on one of the loves seats or the couch, with two of the love seats left unoccupied. Then once everyone was there we discussed what to do, or what movie to watch.

"Definitely a movie." I wasn't sure who said this, but everyone, including me, agreed.

"But what movie?" Wally asked.

"How about the hunger games movies. We could watch all of them?" Artemis asked.

"How about a calmer movie. Like a... Ooo, Grease!" M'gann said. I nodded at the idea but almost everyone else vetoed it and said things like 'Ehhh' or 'not really what we're thinking of' or 'ahhh, mm, sorry, no'. I looked around, they didn't like Grease? How? They must have not been in the mood for a musical, I guess. That must have been I'd. Pfftt not like Grease. Not possible.

"What about the Martian?" Aqualad asked. About half of us were liking that idea but M'gann looked a little distraught.

"Umm" she said. "Mars is not at all that inhabitable. And that guy never even got stuck there!"

"It's supposed to not have happened, it didn't really happen, that guy is an actor." Wally said.

"I know he's an actor, but, whatever it's fine." She said.

"How about Mission Impossible?" Conner asked. I hadn't seen this movie, wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. I liked action movies as much as the next girl, but I wasn't sure about it. It looked kind of cheesy and cliche on the commercials I had seen.

All of us looked alright with this one, so Wally put it in.

"I'll go make popcorn while the previews are on." I said jumping up. I really liked popcorn. Like a lot. Everyone nodded so turned around and headed towards the kitchen.

Once I got to the kitchen, I looked around for popcorn bags. I popped a few in a microwave, just enough that everyone could have a reasonable amount. And I could have a little more than a reasonable amount. I really liked popcorn. I had asked who wanted some, and who didn't. Everyone had wanted some so I set out seven bowls, and put about the same amount in each bowl till I got to the last bag and bowl. I hadn't put anything in the seventh bowl, which was mine. I had topped off the other six bowls with some from the last bag, but then stuck the rest right side up in the bowl. I was greedy when it came to butter popcorn. And goldfish. And a few other things.

I walked back into the lounge and asked

"Can someone help me carry them back?" I looked at the TV and I was surprised the previews were still on, I guess I hadn't missed the beginning. M'gann and Kaldur volunteered and walked back into the kitchen with me. We grabbed all of the bowl and handed them out, me keeping mine and sitting down once we finished giving them out. Then the previews ended and the movie came on. That was like the best timing, how cool is that? We watched the movie, and it was pretty good. The credits rolled and we started stretching and getting up.

"What now?" Artemis asked.

"Another movie?" Nightwing asked.

"Sure" me and a few others said.

"What movie do we watch now?" Kaldur asked.

We ended up deciding to watch the hunger games trilogy. All three. Some of us moved to other seats. Conner and M'gann tried to be discrete, but I already knew they were together. I knew for certain in the first two hours I met them. First when she had asked him if he wanted to come on the tour of the cave, and gave him one of those weird 'couple' looks, then she would try to talk about others during the tour, but ended up mentioning him in like every room we went to, like when she was showing me the training area she talked about Conner training there and getting frequently beat by other members of the team, in a way that as hard as she tried to hide it, hide her feelings of him very well, even if she didn't say it, her facial expressions were loud and clear so to speak. I wonder how long it took the rest of the team to find out, when they first became a couple. I don't think they told the team when they first got together, seeing how hard they were trying to hide it now. Not really sure why, I think they're cute together. Now the other couple I've suspected is Artemis and Wally. They definitely like each other, I'm not sure if they're a couple yet, there pretty awkward around each other. Maybe they're trying to hide it as well. I again have no clue why, it doesn't really affect me weather some of them are together or not, I mean I might tease them about it in a friendly way once and a while, but other than that it really has no bearing on me.

M'gann had moved to one of the love seats closer to Conner who was still on the couch, and then Artemis was next to me, and Wally sat next to her under the excuse of asking her a question and being too lazy to get up. Kaldur stayed on the love seat on the other side of M'gann, the same one he'd been on since the beginning of the first movie we watched. I of course stayed in my spot, not really needing to go any wear, and Artemis was next to me so I didn't have to move to be around someone I already considered a friend. I'd made friends with mostly everyone on the team, I just felt a little closer to the girls so far.

We were watching the movies and I kind of lost track. It was about 3/4 through the second hunger games movie I started drifting off and waking up a few minutes later. I was in one spot for so long in the dark, I got really sleepy. And looking around, I wasn't the only one who was falling asleep. We were all kind of dosing in and out. I think we'd finished the second movie and Kaldur had put in the third, and it'd been on for a little while before I really fell asleep.

This is just some fluff about Laurie's/Tempest getting to know the team a little more on her first day. Stay tuned for the next update!


	7. Chapter 7

I tried to sleep. Then I gave up a half an hour after we all went to bed and left the lounge, where most of us had been sleeping, so I'd been doing things in my room. But I got bored with that too. (It was now 1:30 in the morning, gosh we'd fallen asleep really early when the movies were on) I was bored, and wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon, I never got this much sleep, between my patrols with huntress and schoolwork I never got any wear near any normal amount of sleep, so I guess I'd just do something productive. So I decided to go back to the workout area. I got ready to go and train, hoping I would be more likely to fall asleep after that.

I got dressed, filled up my water bottle and grabbed everything I needed; including my regular mask. I hadn't cleaned my sport mask again yet, but there was only a slight difference in them so it wouldn't have much of an effect on anything. I silently made my way out of my room.

I got there a few minutes later and walked halfway through the door before stopping mid-step. Conner was in there training with bob. I awkwardly stepped back with the foot that was just in the air and walked away from that room. Wasn't he the one who suggested they all go to bed? Well I guess I had to find a new plan. Not that I didn't like Conner, he was cool, I just get self conscious, and don't do as well when I train hard in front of other people I know or are friendly with. Plus, I think M'gann said there was a running track Wally used somewhere other than in the main training room. I had thought it was odd it wasn't in the workout/training room, but right now I didn't protest. It didn't have lanes or anything on it, and tones long part of the circle may have also been used as a runway, but I didn't mind. It was spongy like a track should be, I just needed a place to do something.

Thank god I liked running. I set my things to the side, and started running. When I was running I tried to forget about the nightmare, but to no success as images of my lparents flooded my mind. I never even got to say goodbye. They were most likely dead by now, it's been what now, five years? They've been missing for five years, and my last piece of them, was my fathers bloodstain on a carpet that's long sense been gone. They never found their bodies, I never got to say goodbye. I had no closure, no way to move on, or bring any kind of justice to who may have caused it. I had just finished practicing the 400 meter sprint (usually one lap), when I saw hurdles shoved messily in a corner near the track. No Way! I rushed over and set up the hurdles. I went through them a few times normally, but decided to have a little fun, and I spread them out further away from each other, and started doing flips and back handsprings over them. I was starting to get tired, so I decided to walk back to my room, hopefully accomplishing my goal of being able to fall asleep earlier. I took a quick shower before getting into bed. I think someone saw me while I was doing the flips and back handsprings and other stuff like that over the hurdles. I thought my time spent with huntress had finally made me crazy parinoid, but I couldn't shake the feeling someone was watching me. Then every time I looked around expecting to see someone any wear, there was no one there, so I just kept going. Someone must have walked in thinking no one was there, maybe they got intrigued and watched for a few, then left. Maybe, maybe not, like I said before I was probably just being paranoid, but I couldn't shake the feeling. I got out of the shower and put on clothes to go to sleep. I laid in my bed for a little bit, just thinking. Thinking about everything. Then I eventually drifted off to sleep.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~ Time Skip ~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

Monday at noon, Black Canary walked out of the zeta beam and announced combat training would begin in three minutes. I wondered if I'd zoned out and maybe someone had called yesterday o even earlier today to announce Black Canary was coming for training, but as I walked back to the rooms with everyone else I saw they were just as surprised as I was. I got changed and headed out to meet the rest of them.

I got there and there were only six, including me. I looked around but Black Canary started talking.

"Ok, so today they're will be three pairs, or matches going at once, and I'll be mostly observing and giving feedback and suggestions. Although, there is an odd number so one of you will have to sit for the first round." She said.

Just them M'gann flew into the room and lowered silently next to me, trying to come in unnoticed. Black Canary looked at her a little, but dismissed it, and M'gann let out a breath.

"Ok, so first we'll have... Artemis and Kaldur, Conner and Wally, and Tempest and Nightwing." She finished. I guess M'gann would be the one sitting out. She didn't look upset about it though, which was good. She just looked relieved BC want mad.

We all walked onto the glowing floor and went to different parts of the area waiting for BC to tell us to start.

"I'll go easy on you, you know newbie and all." He said looking at me and smiling lightly, like he was afraid he'd break me. Did he just say he'd go easy on me? No. There will be no 'going easy on'. Not at all.

"You'll go easy on me? I flipped you over and you skidded five feet on the first day, and you're going to go easy?" I asked. His expression kind of gave a yeah, so?

"Well yeah, plus I wasn't expecting you to attack me yesterday, but yeah your new." I have been doing this since I was ten, was he trying to get hurt here?

"Ok, well if I'm so under your league, you wouldn't mind making a bet, would you?" A hint of nervousness phased through his expression, but he nodded taking the challenge.

"If I win, you tell me your real name, your secret identity. If you win, I'll give you mine." He nodded. He looked a little nervous, but he gave me a cocky look, so I raised the bar a tiny bit higher.

"The looser also has to do cartwheels around the cave in bright yellow singing 'I'm a star' repeatedly." He looked at me with a grin.

Just then Black Canary shouted "Go!"

And everyone started fighting. He took the offense and I dodged his first few attempts. I let one hit me lightly to bait him and trucking him, fake falling backwards towards the ground, but quickly making contact with my hands to the ground and kicking him in the chest without myself ever falling or ending up on the ground. I then proceeded and attacked taking the offense and he was overwhelmed and was backing up more and more on defense. This went on for a little while, we fought back and forth. He was really good. He wasn't too over predictable, and knew a lot in hand to hand combat. It went on for what seemed like forever, but I was focused, and I could tell so was he. He had underestimated me, and now he was trying, keeping his full attention on the fight and me. Whose going easy on who now?

A little longer went by and I saw an opportunity. I took it, and flipped over him and landing completely behind him, then kicking his legs out from under him before he fully turned around to face me, and I pushed the rest of him downwards. He hit the floor with a loud thud. The floor lit up with a red circle around him, and announced "Nightwing: status fail."

That took a while. I caught my breath, I felt just a little winded, and I looked around and saw that everyone else had finished their matches and they were all casually looking over, watching. A few of them had shocked expressions, but Canary's staid observant.

I looked down at him, and offered him a hand. He took it was stood up.

"Your good." He said looking a little winded and surprised himself. I felt like retorting some snide comment, still being a little miffed at the conversation before the fight, But instead decided against it and offered a humorous smile.

"Thanks, you too." I said. Black canary walked over and started talking to everyone who was just fighting, they had gravitated towards Nightwing and I once I'd helped him up.

"You all have improved very much, those were good matches, and good things I saw. You all however need some work on being in control of the situation. Always make sure your in control, never ending up at the mercy of your opponent." She said. She said a few more things and paired everyone up again for a few more matches. The rest of training went by fairly quickly, I lost to Wally though, he tricked me and I fell back trying to regain my balance after one of his attacks, but other than that I did pretty well. Afterwards we were all walking out after Black Canary dismissed us and almost everyone else had gone into the locker room and I was heading that way and Nightwing came up behind me as the last person other than he and I had left the hallway.

He whispered.

"Dick Greyson." He whispered quietly after I had turned and gave him a look of expectance.

"That's your secret identity?... interesting..." I said and he gave me a confused look. I gave a 'Ha, thanks' expression, for not backing out of telling me his real name. and walked to the girls locker room door.

"Don't forget, cartwheels mr. Star." I said, and I saw the look on his face, he was hoping I had forgotten. I laughed and walked inside.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~ Time Skip ~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

The next day and a half went by much like the first few. I got closer with the team, and I could tell I was slowly earning their trust. M'gann had already entrusted me with her full secret identity, and so had Wally and Conner, I felt awkward not being able to return the gesture. Nightwing kind of not entirely willingly told me, but he could have refused to say it even though he lost the bet, so he at least must have trusted me a little. Nothing was really eventful, until Batman beamed to mount Justice on Tuesday. We heard someone using the zeta tube to the cave and we met up in the mission room. Batman radioed a few minutes before, that he was going to stop in. He hadn't come to the cave yet so we were all curious when he radioed in, and we all gathered in the 'mission room'. We waited for a minute and when he beamed in, he looked satisfied we were all hear, like he was thankful he didn't have to call us all in, we were already here. What we didn't anticipate was the zeta beam continuing to run, announcing the entrance of not only Batman, but also Green lantern. Then when he was in sight the zeta beam still didn't stop glowing, and Batman plugging in a code, probably allowing the passage of yet another person. The zeta beam announced 'Kid Lantern' after Batman had finished doing whatever he was doing with the zeta beam and someone new walked out. Well his alias sounded awfully close to Kid Flash. I looked over at Wally to see his reaction to the new comer, and his face showed confusion, and a different expression. Possibility maybe, or hope for a possible new friend, I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I looked around at everyone else's expressions, and they all looked like they had thoughts similar to mine, I guess they didn't know who he was either. Hmm...

"This is Kid Lantern. He just returned from Oa a few months ago, and Green Lantern would like him to join the team. I also think it will be beneficial for all of you. He will be joining the team." Batman said, almost monotone, like he usually talked. I looked over to 'Kid Lantern', he looked to be about my age, somewhere in the general vicinity, had chocolate brown hair, and the same mask as his mentor. His suit was nearly identical to his mentor's, most green lanterns had the same suits. I could tell without even looking around everyone else was glancing at him at separate times. He looked around the room. I couldn't tell exactly where he was looking at, because of the white openings on the mask where his eyes were on his mask, like Batman and Nightwing, so I didn't know exactly who he was looking at but I could tell he was taking in all the new faces.

Batman finished and started talking about something else, but barely anyone was listening. Most of us were thinking. I exited my thoughts right as he was finishing up.

"They've already brought everything Kid Lantern needs, I had told Green Lantern the sooner the better, so once Green Lantern and I leave, one of you give him a tour of the place." Batman said. That's when I noticed for the first time the few suitcases sitting on the ground (well now that I'm paying attention to them, they're levitating a little above the ground) that had a green glowing tinge around them. I was fine with the idea of adding another new member, but I didn't know what the others thought of it. They already had me to deal with and get used too, I wasn't sure how they would feel about another one, especially since I only joined two days ago. I almost saw Green Lantern start to say something, but he stopped, and he and batman walked back towards the zeta tubes.

We turned our attention to Kid Lantern. He looked at us and smiled. Not like an evil smile, a real, kind of humorous and chill, smile.

"Hey, so as you've heard I'm Kid Lantern." He said then paused waiting for us to do something.

"All of you are..." He said, urging us to begin further.

"Well if no one else is going to start, I'm Kid Flash, that's Artemis, Aqua lad, Miss Martian, Tempest, Super boy, and Nightwing." He said, pointing to each of us as he said our names. Just because I didn't want to be the first to talk doesn't mean I didn't want to talk at all. I don't really like it when other people introduce me, it makes me feel distant, stuck up, and unemotionally attached to anything. Not that I was mad or anything, Wally was Probably just trying to jump-start the dying conversation, so it wouldn't be too awkward, but I still could have introduce myself.

Kid lantern nodded at each of us as Wally said our names.

"Cool. Uh Batman said on the way here that he updated the room assignments with me in them..." He said and M'gann looked like she just embers something and face palmed saying,

"Hello Megan!" Then lifted off of the ground, and hurriedly flew in the direction the lounge, kitchen, and bed room areas. She came back about thirty seconds later flying through the air heading towards the group.

"The rooming assignments are on a digital screen tucked into a corner between the kitchen and the lounge. I checked and I know where your room is, so uh..." She handed him the thingy and Wally cut in.

"I'll show you where it is, come on, I'll give you the tour. You ok if Nightwing comes too?" Wally asked. Kid Lantern nodded.

"Sure, I guess." He said.

And they started walking away talking about God knows what.

 **Ooo-ooo Kid Lantern? New OC... ;)**


	8. Chapter 8

We got our first mission of the week. On Wednesday, the next day. Batman had called us into the mission area, and he was currently giving us the details on the mission. We had to go to Chatizen Republic's peace meeting between Chatizen and Slovakia and make sure there were no assassination attempts, or attempts to sabotage the peace meeting or anything like that. This was a very important meeting, these two countries have been enemies for decades and batman insisted we make sure nothing messed with its success. Almost all of the population in both countries, and a few surrounding countries were supporting and hoping the peace meeting would be a success. But, there were always those powerful people against the idea of peace, for their own benefit, and there were more than enough against peace between Slovakia and Chatizen, and most of those people would take it to extreme, extremes to get what they want. Batman finished up with final parameters, announced 'Batman out' when he was finished, and the screen went black.

We all jogged to the hanger and they all headed for a red ship that looked like an egg.

I'm pretty sure M'gann said this is the ship that they would take most often when they left the cave. It was a mountain, why they called it "the cave", I have no idea. When we got closer it changed and I jogged a little slower and Wally ran into me.

"Sorry." I said, as I returned to running.

"What're you slowing for?" Wally asked curiously.

"It's moving" I said and a little freaked out by the shifting aircraft.

"Oh, yeah, It's a Martian bio ship... it does that. It's like... linked with M'gann." He said, and I thought 'duh', of corse that's what M'gann had said after she'd explained about the hanger, that she could control it. And she's telepathic duh she meant control it with her mind, not like human aircraft controls. I looked at everyone else as the Bioship continued changing and we all kept running towards the Bioship. As I looked at everyone else, I noticed Kid Lantern, who looked almost as surprised as I was about the shifting ship. Nightwing noticed his confusion and I'm pretty sure he explained. Stepped into the Bioship with the rest of the team, although I felt off being inside the unknown aircraft. Six seats popped up around ship. Then there was one in the middle that M'gann walked over too and sat in in. Artemis motioned for me to sit next to her. I went over and sat next to her and the straps immediately tightened around me. I gasped and Artemis looked at me and realized no one had told me about all of the ship's... special features. I guess they had all become so accustomed to it they no longer thought of it as strange.

A few seconds after sitting down, I looked around and looked at everyone sitting. Miss Martian had made two new chairs, for me and Kid Lantern. In the chair on the right closest to the back of the Bioship was Conner, and In the chair on the left closest to the back of the Bioship was Nightwing. Then the next closest chair to the right hand side was Kid Lantern, then mine a little in front and to the left of his, then Artemis' a little in front and to the left of mine. Then the next closest to the back on the left hand side other than Nightwing, was Wally a little in front and to the right of him, and then Kaldur, a little in front and to the right of Wally. Then in the middle and towards the back of the dome was the larger seat, where M'gann sat driving the Bioship, using two glowing blue/green spheres. We headed out of the hanger and everyone was talking about the coordinates how we were all going to enter and decided on a plan of sorts. Me and M'gann would be sitting near each other and blending into the crowd, while keeping a watch on the balconies above us. Nightwing, Aqualad, ad Kid Lantern would be posing as reporters, keeping watch over all of the doors and windows. Artemis and Conner would be outside watching all of the entrances and the outside of the building and around it. Wally would be posing as a butler guy, not really a butler, but more like the ones that ask the important people at a gathering if they need anything Ike water or something and most of the time they just ended up stand near them the whole time. Kind of like a waiter, but not.

"M'gann could you set up the mind link?" Kaldur asked.

M'gann nodded, and them I felt something really weird. I can't really describe it, but it was weird.

Then from inside my head came Kaldur's voice.

"Ok, go." Kaldur said.

What on gods green earth... I heard myself think.

"Oh it's the mind link, so we don't need ear coms and risk the possibility that they may hack into our ear coms and hear what we're saying to each other." M'gann replied in my mind.

"This isn't strange at all." I heard Kid Lantern say, sarcasm edging at his voice. This must have been his first time experiencing the 'mind link' too.

"Cool, it must be really useful." I said into the mind link. I think, I dint know how but I think I did, it felt really strange.

"It is actually, we use it all the time." Wally said.

I guess it worked.

"Can you filter it or just whatever you think goes into... this..." Kid Lantern asked

"We'll explain it later, right now we need to go." Kaldur cut in.

We entered the building, except for Conner and Artemis who took their spots outside, and we made our way over to our spots as the meeting started and the leaders and other 'important' people walked over to their seats on the risen platform. The room was set up with the risen platform, well more like a stage, in the front, then seats on lower ground for other important people, spectators, and reporters to sit. Then there were the balconies above us, and the front doors behind the seats. Then there were a few other doors and some Windows in other places. They talked and raised their voices a few times, but overall, it was mostly non eventful. Then Artemis spoke into the mind link.

"Someone's about to run in the front doors. They have weapons, definitely a gun and a knife and I can see something else, but I can't make out what it is." Her voice sounded inside of my head.

"I tried to stop him with an arrow, but he dodged it. Like five seconds before it was going to hit him he caught it. He's not a regular human." She added.

"Ok he's pissing me off he just dodged four more of my arrows, catching two, while he wasn't even paying attention to me. He is definitely not human." She added again, sounding irritated.

"Thanks for the heads up, we're ready, keep your post in case there's more." Kaldur said into the mind link.

I readied myself for the soon coming attack. I looked up at the stage, and the leaders looked like they were coming to an agreement. Seriously, could they have any worse timing?

Then the guy entered and shot out a few windows making himself known. So much for our useful info on a secret attack. Wally was ready to jump in front of the leaders, he had bullet proof everything on for just that reason, and a layer of thin armor underneath in case knives were thrown. The guy who barged in was wearing a long brown coat with grey pants and shirt. He looked at the surprised politicians and leaders and such, and smiled insanely. He was big and strong looking, but looked like a business man, except for the psychotic smile on his face. He was scary. He laughed crazily. And looked back at the people on the stage.

"All of you dirty scheming politicians, making decisions based on your best interests. What about the people, aren't you supposed to represent the people? What do the people want, and how are you helping them?" The guy asked putting his hands on his weapons he had a regular gun, and something else I could. Wonderful... another psycho.

"The people voted, they want peace!" The main leader of south Chatizen yelled at the man.

"Is that so?" He asked sarcastically.

He then pulled out the two weapons, and I saw the other one. It was a stun gun. Why did he have a stun gun. I looked closer at it and almost gasped. It had enough voltage to knock out an elephant for hours, it'd be like lightning shooting out of the barrel. How did he even get that? And why did he have such a high... Oh no. He knows kid flash in here. How? I didn't have time to contemplate the possible answers to my dilemma, because he was getting ready to pull out the guns. He was going to stun Wally so he couldn't block the bullet psycho was going to shoot from the regular gun. Ughhh, I knew what I was going to do, and I really wished I didn't have to. I held onto the book I had and jumped up and flipped, moving myself in the air to where Mr. Crazazy's body language was showing he would aim, and as he pulled out his gun to aim, I was almost in the right position to catch the bullet. I don't think I could survive that much electricity, and Wally would only be out for a few minutes because of his accelerated healing, so I was aiming to stop the bullet. I moved the book I'd been holding, up when I flipped into the air, I moved so the bullet would stop in the thick book. But as it got closer, time seemed to slow due to the adrenaline being released into my bloodstream, and I saw it wasn't going to stop.

'Shit' I thought, not even aware it went into the mind link, but the rest of the team heard it clearly as they watched. I knew everyone in the room was now looking at me. They all watched in slow motion(or was that just me) as the bullet went through the book and landed in my arm. At least the book slowed the velocity. Now I could probably get it out when I landed, wrap in in whatever I could find, and be able to get back up quickly. Wow, that hurt more than I had anticipated, I was really just focusing on not getting it lodged somewhere important, not really taking into account that it would hurt that much. Wait, I need to land... I had gotten wrapped up in my thoughts and was currently tumbling through the air ungracefully. Un-oh.

I couldn't fix my position, or even the way I was falling before I awkwardly fell onto a bunch of chairs and other uncomfortable things. One word. Oww!

I just kind of laid there for a second, I thing I hit my head on something. People ran and screamed, but thankfully none stepped on me. I was only able to stop the bullet because I saw the guy was going to pull out his gun, I wasn't Wally fast, I was just fast human with adrenaline fast. I honestly felt pretty accomplished, I really wasn't sure if I would get there in time to stop the bullet, but I did! By what I could pay attention to around me, the guy had been too stunned to shoot another bullet, and Artemis was able to shoot the gun out of his hand with one of her arrow's so he couldn't shoot at them again. She was still outside, but I assumed shed left her post to get a clear shot, and had gone back once she'd hit his gun. I'm pretty sure Kaldur and Nightwing were currently fighting the guy. And I think a few members of the team had maybe had called my name in the mind link, but everything was fuzzy, I wasn't sure. Yep, definitely hit my head. I tried to sit up, and I got a little dizzy, but it cleared after a moment. I saw M'gann running by, giving my a worried glance, but I gave her a reassuring one, and she hesitated, but then started running to help Nightwing and Kaldur again.

I looked at my arm. I'm pretty sure the bullet had gone into the brachioradialis muscle of my lower left arm. Thankfully it only limits my semipronated movement, the movement of my arm when it's straight down at my sides, and lifting the hand in an upward motion in only that one position, so I will be able to continue using my arm, without too much limitation as to what I can do. The bullet hadn't gone deep enough to get to the bone, thank god for that book, but the bullet was about halfway in my arm. It wasn't a major injury, I'd probably be fully healed in a few days. I could see it and take it out, without much difficulty. Eww, oh gosh this was going to be gross. I made sure I knew where it was exactly and what to do, quickly, before turning away from it, and pulling it out. Oh my gosh, it made a sound that was a horrible sound. My stomach sank. The whole getting shot, and having to pull the bullet out myself was seriously grossing me out. It took all of my will power not to get physically sick, and I refused to look at it till I wrapped it in something. I'm definitely not becoming a doctor. I put the bullet in a plastic bag I had brought, and slid it into my pocket, it was valuable evidence, could be used to track the crazy guy in case he might get away. I pulled a small roll of medical wrap out of my utility belt and wrapped it around my arm. I refused to look at the wound, I hated blood, it freaked me out, I hated wounds and breaks, and ow, and blegh, I always cringed just thinking about things like that, thank god huntress had told me basic things like this to fix myself up in case we were separated. This could have been much worse if I didn't know what to do. When I tied off the bandage, that was the only time I looked at it. The medical wrap was white and thin, perfect for making a makeshift bandage, that didn't get in the way. It wrapped around the wound, and a little of the tender surrounding area, I think it looked as stable as one of Black Canneries, and she's really good at these things. I was ready to go and help the others with whatever I could. I got up, and was making my way over when I saw Wally still passed out on the stage, and ran over to make sure he was ok. I got over there, and first checked for a pulse. It was there, like I thought. I propped him up so he was upright instead of the strange position he'd fallen in. I kneeled next to him and put one of his arms over my shoulder and left the other hand swinging at his side, then stood, hauling him off the ground. I half dragged him, to a corner of the room that was farthest from the fighting and kind of hid him behind a table, so Mr. Crazazy wouldn't see him and hurt him again. M'gann and Nightwing were fighting the crazazy while Kaldur had begun evacuating the building. He had gotten the politicians and leaders out first then the civilians rushed towards the door, so he helped them all get out. I went over to him to make sure he didn't need any help before I went to go help fight this maniac. When I got to he was getting the last twenty or so people out of the building, and Conner and Kid Lantern were escorting everyone to safety, a bunker for the people who were on the stage and store a little ways from the meeting building. The people who were on the stage had a higher risk than the others, and why endanger the civilians with their presence, so the higher risk people were in the more secure bunker.

"Do you need any help, or are you good?" I asked Conner.

"No, but you should be careful." He said glancing at my arm. I nodded and resisted the strong urge to roll my eyes at his comment.

"Well look whose back from dying. Welcome back to the land of those who didn't purposely get themselves shot." Kid Lantern humorously. I almost laughed a little at this, but serious, mission, need to focus on mission, my head was spinning enough as it is.

I looked over at my teammates fighting the psycho guy, and I ran over to help. I flipped over my teammates and kicked the crazy guy in the throat before moving in the air and landing in an awkward looking one handed back handspring, and ending on my feet. I helped a little, mostly just distracting him and trying not to use my arm. We eventually defeated him, handcuffed him in special handcuffs just in case he was super powered (we weren't sure), and handed him over to the police to put in Belle Reve. We had gotten Wally, who still wasn't awake, and Nightwing had carried him in. Thank goodness, he was kind of heavy, and I didn't really feel like carrying him again, and then got into the Bioship and headed home. M'gann fussed, as expected, over my arm.

"I'm fine M'gann, the bullet isn't even in my arm anymore, I got it out already. I just need some disinfectant just in case, and fresh bandages when we get back to the mountain. I'll be fully healed in a few days." I told her as she examined my arm and moved it. I hadn't taken the bandages off , but she was having a go just looking at the outside of it.

"The Bioship has a common Martian remedy for wounds and will heal it faster." Looking at me for permission. I had no idea why she was making such a big deal out of this. Yeah I was freaked out by injuries, but that stuff happens pretty often while superheroing.

"Oh yeah I remember when we used it on..." "Oh yeah" "It works great..." I heard a couple of them start talking about it. I didn't hear their full comments just bits and pieces, but it sounded like good things, so I said.

"Ok, knock yourself out." I told her and she closed her eyes and a door in the back of the ship opened, and a little container that held a purple glowing substance floated through the open door towards us. I looked away as she took off the bandages and put on the glowing purple stuff. Then some bandages appeared next to us and she wrapped it. It started to sting a little but immediately started feeling better. I barely noticed it was hurting. We got back to the cave and walked to the mission room for debrief. Kaldur described the mission and the success that fallowed, the peace treaty was signed afterwards, and the countries will be joining again. He told batman how the bad guy had stunned Wally with a large amount of electricity, who was just now waking up, and how I kept the bullet from killing the leader of South Chatizen, and had lodged the bullet in myself in the process, and my not-fun landing and the evacuation and Artemis' shot at the gun, and Conner taking the people to two separate locations, then the fight, and Wally's situation in great detail. Batman looked satisfied, mostly monotone looking as he always was, but an almost unnoticeable hint of mediocre satisfaction. Some of the others probably thought he just had a blank expression, and I almost thought so too, but I saw it.

Yes! My first mission with this team was a success.

Everyone was kind of tired, so we all went to bed a little early.


	9. Chapter 9

I went in my room, but never fell asleep. I was thinking. About everything. I couldn't sleep, so after an hour and a half I got bored and went to the training/workout room, the last time I couldn't sleep I'd trained I'd been able to fall asleep fast when I left. I got dressed, got my water bottle, and my sports mask, and everything I needed and headed over. I was about to walk through the doorway (there's no door, it's just an empty space) but I heard someone. I was halfway through the doorway mid-step, and I froze in place. Lantern was inside, practicing on one of the battle simulators, they weren't computers or anything, they were like machines so and a bunch of other things that challenged you,like you were fighting a bunch of powered super villains. Well with mechanic brains that is, I just didn't really know what else to call them, they looked pretty challenging. And fun. I awkwardly tried to back away unnoticed, but I guess I bombed it because then Kid Lantern said

"Can't sleep?" He said still fighting the dummy.

"Yeah, you too?" I asked reentering the room a little hesitantly.

"Yeah." He said.

I set my stuff down next to a bench, and headed to the bars. I was thinking about the others fighting styles, because in all honesty, I hadn't been paying all that much attention. We had only had two missions I got shot in the first one, and there wasn't any fighting in the second. But I bet I could observe more during training with Black Canary. I really liked training with her. Even though I've never trained with her while I was with the team, her and huntress are still really close from their birds of prey days. They were in a few other groups with each other too, and they really liked each other. They didn't at the beginning, when they first met, but after a few team-ups, they got along really well. They teamed up pretty often, and even though the birds of prey team happened way before Huntress adopted me, they teamed up often and they still do, me occasionally tagging along. It was really fun goi g on patrol with both of them. When I first debuted as Huntresses protege, Canary more than happy to offered to help train me, and I trained with her quite often. I liked her a lot, and even now, I think of her as a relative.

Once I had made my way over to the bars and done a few things on it (I was really out of practice, I didn't really use bars much anymore, not since I was like ten anyways, I did more freely moving acrobatics and gymnastics) I saw rings, I got momentum on the bar, and flew through the air towards the first ring. I had forgotten Kid Lantern was there, lost in my thoughts I guess, until I felt his eyes on me. Ugh, I liked occasionally showing off and everything, but at the right times. All the time show off's are really annoying. I just wanted to do something I enjoyed and the bar was boring, so I guess I could just use that as an excuse to myself. I flew through the air, I loved the feeling. Being light and graceful on my feet was always a natural trait I possessed, and Huntress and Black Canary saw how that could make for an amazing advantage in hand to hand combat, especially against uneven odds. I reached the first ring, and grabbed ahold of it. While it was swinging towards the next, I gracefully let go and forwards flipped to the next ring. I did a half turn and reached the next. Then another flip, but I didn't tuck for this one, my legs and arms were extended, and I only flipped once before grabbing the next ring. Each time in between the rings I did something different, creative and fun. I wasn't really in a hurry so I just enjoyed myself, doing flips and turns throughout the rings. For whatever reason an image of my parents popped into my head. They gave me that natural grace. I wasn't exactly sure what they did before they went missing. I was quite an aloof child, and things like a job, and hobbies, didn't really matter to my ten and under year old self, so little things like that, eventually faded from my mind after they went missing. I didn't really need to know everything about them anyway. I loved them and missed them all the time, but their either dead, or if they are alive, they're not with me now, so I don't push. I'd rather just continue with my life, and not think about them too much. The image was one of them taking me to my first gymnastics class. I was four and very exighted and my parents were watching me from the seats on the side for the parents. I remember even then I showed potential, and was fluent and graceful with my movements. They I reached the last one and did a backflip off of it, aiming to land on a large post about halfway from the last ring and the ground. But in my backflip I miscalculated the time it would take for the ring to sway out of reach, and I flipped too fast, and my left foot hit the ring swaying back towards the center. My foot catching on the ring changed where I would land, so I maneuvered myself best I could and landed on the post with one leg, and immediately knew I was off balance. I stumbled, and fell off backwards and tried to regain control just before hitting the ground by transitioning into a back handspring. It worked a little but, I forgot about the training equipment, and crashed into it. Oops, and ow.

"You ok?" He yelled in my direction worried.

"Yeah, just lost my balance." I said.

"I can see that." He said as I climbed out of the pile of knocked over equipment and walked back towards the bars. Kid Lantern walked over to me when I was halfway there.

"Something on your mind?" He asked. Oooohhhh... Double oops, I guess it showed.

"Not really." I lied.

"Really? Because you were doing fine until the last transition to the ring. You faltered and you were distracted, because your timing was thrown off by something..." He said urging me t. He stopped and looked at me.

"Ok, yeah there was, but, it isn't really a big deal, And it's not really any of your buisiness anyway." I got a little snappy. I couldn't tell him what it was, it was pretty personal, and again, none of them knew my secret identity. I also really didn't feel like show and tell at the moment.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He said.

"Nope." I said plainly.

"Ok, well we're all here if you decide to change your mind." He said, and I was a little confused for a moment, but concluded "we're" was him and the rest of the team. I guess the cheesy 'I'm here for you' cliché didn't fit his personality, and I was glad it didn't. I probably would have cringed.

I went up on the bars again and got up to the first ring, but this time decided to stay on the first one. I flipped, and after a few minutes went to the second one, where there was a mat underneath. I didn't want to go all the way through, so I flipped down to the mat and landed in a 'ready' position. I walked over to my stuff. I was starting to get tired, so I was probably going to get a drink and head back to my room. I lifted my water bottle up to my mouth, and grabbed my sports bag. I headed for the door, and didn't notice Lantern had finished and was getting his stuff. I waited a moment so he could catch up. Gosh, we needed to find a nickname or something for him, he really didn't look like a little kid, and he wasn't just lantern either, so we needed to come up with a shorter name, one that hopefully better suits him, I didn't like calling him that. Something about 'Kid Lantern' seemed to long and formal to me.

"Tired now?" I asked.

"Yeah, just about." he said taking a sip of his water.

We walked backend talked on our way. We got quieter the closer we got to the rooms so we wouldn't wake anyone. At a whisper we reached the front of the rooming area. I went into my room after saying goodnight. I almost immediately fell asleep after going into my room.

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The next few days passed on as normal, I trained, helped M'gann with the cooking, hung out with everyone on the team, much like the first few days, except now we were all getting used to each other more so it felt less strange. The morning after I was shot, I had looked at my wound. I had gone to sleep with the bandage and whatever M'gann had put on my wound from the mission, and gone to sleep. I woke up the next morning and looked at it and it was almost completely healed. At first I was about ready to pass out, but I had to admit I was thankful, I really wasn't looking forward to being hurt for the next couple weeks and having to explain that to my friends at school. We were all getting used to each other a little more and having other people my age who could relate to being a hero, especially a hero's protege, and they faced pretty similar problems that made for great conversations, and hilarious stories. I was genuinely starting to like being on the team. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to be away from huntress from time to time, I really liked being with them, they had new points of view I could relate to, and mostly everyone was really friendly. I found that Kid Lantern was funny, and had an great personality, he was loyal and a good friend, He was a little sarcastic, and a small bit like Wally, but he was a a more mature and a lot less obsessed with himself and less cocky than Wally was,and he really liked sports and is definitely a people person. He was still immature, but at least he wasn't as bad as Wally. He was new, and it was pretty fun getting to know him. Everything went on as normal, until Saturday, when I partially learned how to fly, and crash landed into some very large, very hard trees. I had been practicing on the outdoor track, it was a beauand so was Wally and I'd accidentally momentarily crossed over his lane while a soccer ball came bouncing by that I didn't really want to trip on, and me and Wally had run into each other head on. Of corse, me with the lesser body weight, and less velocity went flying into the woods 50 yards away due to the built up momentum from the two of us. And he only fell back like 20 yards. Why do the the laws physics hate me? Everyone who was near by stared as we ran into each other and we flew into the different directions. They kind of stood there for a minute, baffled, then saw me coming out of the trees mostly unharmed, and Wally looking just as intact. I almost started laughing looking back on it, it was pretty funny. All of their faces certainly were.

Wally was sitting on the couch watching a movie. I couldn't tell what movie it was, but walked over anyway though. I was bored and Wally always thought of something fun to do.

I walked over and plopped down next to him on the couch.

"Whatcha doin'." I asked him.

"Nothing much, you?" He replied still looking at the screen.

"Nah..." I began to be intrigued by what was happening on the screen. It was an action movie, ironically it was a superhero movie by marvel.

"I actually think I lost track of time, I was supposed to meet M'gann and Artemis for a girl thing, I can't remember what it was, but I am supposed to meat them in the kitchen..." I stopped and looked at the time. "Three minutes ago! I'm late!" I said jumping up and running out of the room. I ran to the kitchen.

I got into the kitchen and M'gann and Artemis were waiting.

"About time." Artemis said.

"Sorry, lost track of time." M'gann started walking in the other direction, so we followed. Since it was our lady full day, M'gann Artemis and I were going out to do fun things around happy harbor. I had normal clothes on except for my really dark aviator sunglasses that hid most of my upper face. M'gann was going to show us her favorite mall, and we were going to get our hang out like normal teenagers for a change. We got there in 12 minutes.

We walked around and ended up getting many shopping bags full of clothing and other things, a trip to the nail salon, Buddha berry, Starbucks, a pretzel store, a really good taco stand, and various snack stands in the middle isles of the mall where the stores were lined on either side. So we basically went there and ate a lot of food, and did a bunch of stereotypical girl activities. It was really fun! The mall had a bunch of my favorite stores, and so many new ones I've never seen before, it was really cool. I had a really great time and I was pretty disappointed when we had to go back to the cave.

We got back and walked through the kitchen to the lounge.

Everyone was there and the three of us walking in with a bunch of shopping bags, and all three of us with our new matching aviator glasses, yes I already had some, but M'gann was hell bent on getting something matching. When we walked out of the Bioship and Conner was the only one in the hanger, looking at this... Thing. It was a big grey sphere. It was beeping and lights were lighting up and going out and it was making noises that personified the machine, so it gave off the impression that it was living, and not just a machiene.

He looked over at us, then looked back to the sphere, not really amused. We walked past, and M'gann stopped and told him something, saying she'd catch up to us before we got upstairs. It was really obvious they were a couple, M'gann and Conner. I don't know why they were hiding it from me, but I figure they'd tell me when they were ready. Same with Artemis and Wally. I wasn't as sure however if they were an official couple or if they were just kind of 'hanging out just the two of them' which was that they weren't officially a couple, maybe kind of denying it, or in the early stages of a relationship. Whatever they all were it was adorable watching all of them try to hide it.

She kept her word and caught up to us before we got on the elevator.

We eventually got to M'gann's room and sat on her bed. We had an hour before dinner and we were going to have some girl time for our last day.

Once we were on the bed, and had been talking for a few minutes, the topic of boys came up.

"I still think you should go out with Kaldur." Artemis said, a little sneakily.

"What?" I asked looking uninterested in him, faking my innocence of not knowing they were dating Conner and Wally.

"Hmmmm," they said in unison looking at me. Now they were going to pair me with someone. Ha, little do they know.

"I don't know, I mean not Kaldur really, he's too..." Artemis trailed off, trying to think of the right word.

"Plain." M'gann said, and we gall giggled. He was pretty plain. And kind of boring Kaldur's totally awesome, he's a great leader, and a super loyal and honest friend, but nothing really 'pazzaz', or fun about him.

I could tell they kind of waned to change the subject, not wanting to draw attention to their love lives.

I let it go, but I was waiting till M'gann started taking about Conner again. As I predicted, she did and I took this opportunity.

"And then he took a half melted stick of butter and chucked it as hard as he could at Wally!" She finished.

"uhhhhhhh..." I groaned, unable to control myself any longer. They looked at me, after I groaned with my tone sounding annoyed and impatient.

"Why won't you just tell me already? Why didn't you tell me in the first place?" I replied to their looks.

They still looked a little confused, but understanding slowly crept onto their faces.

"I mean, if you were going to hide it, at least hide it well." I said.

"How'd you know?" M'gann her facial expression shifting from realization to horror.

I looked at her.

"Your kidding." I said "it was obvious just from the way you looked at each other, let alone how you talk about him constantly." I said.

They looked relieved I wasn't mad, and something else was present on their faces. It wasn't bad, it was a good look, I just couldn't put my finger on it.

"How long have you know?" Artemis asked.

"Well for M'gann and Super Boy, I knew two hours after I met all of you, and for Artemis and Wally, I figured it out about by the end of the first day, a little after the sport we did." I said. They looked at me their expressions littered with surprise.

I was frankly surprised I didn't figure it out earlier, really, they weren't very good at hiding it, which with a secret identity and all you'd think they'd be better at it.

"I've been waiting for you to tell me, because I didn't want it to intrude, or come off nosey, it's really boring, and I adore talking about other people's relationships, and I absolutely adore the two of yours." I said, and there faces still showed surprise but it was being overtaken by giggles.

"You knew the whole week ?" M'gann asked.

"Yeah, why were you guys hiding, it it's not a big deal, it doesn't really matter to me." I asked.

"Well the whole team kind of decided not to tell you till we were closer so you wouldn't feel excluded or like a third wheel or anything." M'gann explained.

"There's now eight of us, third wheel doesn't apply to eight people, half of which are not in a relationship, so we are even." I said humorously trying to lighten the mood and ensure they knew I wasn't upset that four members of the team were dating, which really, why would I be? What kind of a kind of friend or person for that matter, would I be if I came into a group of people and got mad at them for dating before I even showed up? It confused me, but I didn't want to injure their pure intentions. "Plus, I would have totally shipped it if you weren't dating." I said and they started laughing.

We talked and talked, till it was time to start preparing dinner, and Artemis helped us tonight which turned out to be a disaster. By the time we finished dinner, we broke two plates, one bowl, three glasses, and two forks (don't ask), and had to restart the main corse and the side dish twice. I loved her, but she was kind of just in the way, M'gann and I darting out around the kitchen, had gotten used to being out of each other's way, and knew when we needed help. Artemis was just... Un experienced. Yeah, that was it. It totally wasn't that she was a complete klutz in the kitchen or that she tripped over oil she spilled, or that she mixed the wring ingredients into the bowl, or anything like that.

We miraculously got everything out in one piece. For a while when everyone was eating, Artemis didn't talk much and looked a little embarrassed, which was an emotion a wasn't used to seeing, and one I would have never expected from her, but she was back to her normal sarcastic self by halfway through the meal.

After dinner we hung out for a little while in the lounge, just talking and laughing, and I thought it was nice. After, we all went to bed a little early, skipping a movie

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The next day went by pretty normal until a few hours after lunch, when batman had told us to meet in the mission room ready in twenty minutes. It was about 4:30 when the meeting started.

Batman was currently giving us the details we needed for the mission. We were investigating a newish company, that had arisen suspicions of having connections with Count Vertigo. Along with that the company has been suspected to have been conducting un-publicized research. It's a technology company, and has Research facilities inside the building. Batman finished.

"The cooperation's name is Falcon Industries." Batman said

"Like Lawrence Falcon?" Wally asked.

"No, some other famous Falcon persona." Artemis retorted, sarcasm evident in her voice.

"Yeah, we're dealing with Lawrence Falcon. Though I'm not sure which side he is on." Batman replied vaguely. What did that mean? Gosh he's worse than huntress.

"Your job is to infiltrate the facility undetected and investigate. Do not engage unless completely necessary." He said before looking at us for any questions. Once he saw everyone had asked enough earlier, and wasn't in the asking mood at the moment, he said.

"Batman Out" he said and the screen shut off.

We got to the Bioship, and everyone took their seats, and started to discus a loose plan. I listened and made sure I knew the plan, but looked out at the sky. It was magnificent. The sun set was amazing even from a normal height, but in this, it was breathtaking. This ship was perfect for sight seeing. It didn't have to go too far above the clouds, like an airplane, it was the perfect view and I just starred watching as the clouds passed, and the painted colors of the sunset; from bright reds and pinks, to vivid ambers and oranges, then slipping out to bright, pale yellows and light blues.

Then we landed. There was a small pocket of trees near the building, and there weren't any people for a ways. The sun was getting lower, and lower in the sky, and the sky's vibrant colors were beginning to darken. We made our way silently towards the building. Conner however had a little difficulty with that. According to the building's blueprints there were a few entrances we could use. There was a window two stories up that was mostly hidden from street view, not that there were people really out, but just in case. Kaldur motioned us over into a small group hidden by a few trees.

"Ok, so Nightwing, M'gann, Kid Lantern, and I, we'll be throughly investigating any room you can get yourselves into without setting off any kinds of alarms. Wally, Tempest, and Artemis will be making sure no one is aware we are here, and to alert you if anyone comes, and look out for suspicious activity. Super boy, stay out here and tell us of anyone entering the building or leaving it." Kaldur said.

Conner groaned.

"Stealth isn't exactly your strong suit." Artemis directed at Conner. He glared her way, but he knew it was true.

"M'gann, link us up?" Kaldur asked.

M'gann nodded, and then I felt that same weird feeling, M'gann was setting up the mind link again. I still can't really describe it, but it was weird.

Then from inside my head came Kaldur's voice.

"Ok, go." Kaldur said.

We all entered the building. Nightwing had hacked into the security system in seconds. Holy cannoli, I've never seen anyone hack that fast! I wasn't really all that good at hacking, it took me much longer to get into security systems like these. It wasn't really my forte. Stealth, hand to hand combat, my crossbow and investigation I was pretty good at though. I was a little disappointed I had to play guard duty. At least it was better than standing outside, I can do a little people investigating, looking for strange people who would rack up suspicion. I walked around the empty hallways. There was like no one in here. I guess that was good for the mission. But why wasn't anyone here. I thought to all of the possibly causes, I remembered it was a government holiday, so the company must have had no one at work that day. Then I saw someone. They were in a lab coat, and carrying something I couldn't see heading towards the elevator, he kept looking around, covering what he was holding. I tried to get a little closer to see what it was he was holding, but the elevator opened and he stepped into it.

"Uh guys, there was this suspicious looking lab-coat guy who was holding something and looking around nervously shielding what he was holding who just got into an elevator." I thought a little humorously at how cliche this guy was at being suspicious, (seriously?), and hoped it made its way into the mind link. I guess it did because I only waited a few seconds before Artemis appeared near where I was hiding in the shadows. I assumed she knew where I was but then she whispered.

"Tempest!" She whispered.

I stepped out and she drew her bow. I rose my hands and stopped moving.

"Chill, it's me." I said slightly humorously.

"Ok, that elevator?" She asked lowering her bow and gesturing with her head towards the elevator behind me.

I looked over at it. You needed a key card to open it, lab coat guy had used one. I stepped towards the elevator looking at the key pad. It was really high tech, which made our search a lot harder, how'd such a new company get stuff like this? I looked at Artemis and she looked at me. She was examining the keypad as well. Then we heard someone coming, and Artemis drew her bow and I pulled out one of my daggers. He rounded the corner, and saw us. He put his hands up stepping further out of the darkness so we could see him.

"Calm down, it's just me." Kid Lantern said.

"Sorry, didn't know you came already, I headed down when Tempest asked for someone." He said noticing Artemis

"I'll call Nightwing, we'll need him for the key pad" she said putting down her bow for the second time in two minutes. Then I heard her in my head.

"Nightwing! We need you and your hacking!" She said in my mind.

"Alright, on my way." He said into the mind link, sounding a little disappointed to be taken away from whatever he was doing.

"Since your here, I'm going to go back up and investigate if you don't need me." Kid Lantern said.

"Actually, stuck around for a few, it might be useful to have another person, that pad lock looks pretty complicated, and not many people put this much security on an elevator, whatever's inside is probably more interesting than whatever's in there." She said.

"I don't know about you, but the rooms I was looking through, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary." She added.

"Yeah, I didn't really find anything anyway." He said.

Then Nightwing dropped from the ceiling with a look of 'what do you need' plastered on his face. We pointed towards the keypad and as he looked at it, his expression turned to irritation as he recognized it.

"Man, why'd they have to get something so hard too get into. Whatever's in that elevator has to be worth it, this thing is encrypted and everything, why would someone put this much security on an elevator, God." He said. It only took him about a minute. Way longer than it had taken him to hack the building security, but still. Once he did, Lantern pulled open the elevator doors with a glowing green thing that resembled a really big hydraulic spreader. We looked up, and there was nothing really out of the ordinary. It went about 12 floors up, pretty normal.

Except that the building only had 5 floors. Then we looked down. We were on the ground level. There were stairs leading somewhere else. Nightwing turned to us.

"This looks like it needs to be thoroughly investigated. And who knows how much suspicious activity might be up, or down here." He said, an edge to his voice, and a smirk tugging at his mouth. Artemis's face lit up and Kid lantern smiled and made a drawn out "Mmmhhm". Artemis nodded, then they looked at me and I snickered, and a mischievous smile stretched across my face.

"Up or down?" Artemis asked us.

"Best for last? The underground looks more complicated, you want to check out up first?" Nightwing asked, hinting that the more interesting things were more likely underground. Artemis shot an arrow with a cable to the top, and started climbing up the elevator shaft. Nightwing just climbed up with ease, and looking closer I saw that he had special grip things on his palms and bottoms of his toes on his boots. Kid lantern just flew up, and I got out my crossbow from my utility belt. I got the right arrow, attached the cable to my crossbow piece that would reel it in, and shot it to the top of the elevator shaft. I pushed on an indent in my crossbow and it started reeling, pulling me up with it. Artemis and Nightwing, seeing me pass them looked up, a little confused. I just kept moving up, and when I got to the third to the top level only a few meters below where my crossbow had shot, and Kid Lantern was already there waiting for us. I swung around, and tapped the release button and landed on the small ledge by the third to the top level, where Kid Lantern was, and at the same time, Nightwing and Artemis reached the same place. Nightwing hacked into the security system, getting a map of the place, and he and Lantern, using his giant hydraulic spreader again, pulled open the doors slowly, in case someone was here. No one was in sight, until we saw the last corner of the room. Then we saw the desk, with the guy just about to stand up and ask who we were, but I rolled a gas ball at him, it dispersed at his feet, and he looked a little dayzed, but after a few seconds, he sat right back down in his chair going back to work. Nightwing looked at me like 'what in the world was that?' And I figured I'd explain.

"It was a chemical compound, not harmful in a dose like that, but if given on a regular basis, could affect the visionary part of the brain, and memory and hallucinations. The gas made him forget he saw us, and now he can't see us, the directors of the gas. He won't see anything out of the ordinary, even if another member of the team was standing right in front of him. He'll still be able to respond to other coworkers as they walk by, but he has no clue were here." I said whispering.

"Created by huntress and I." I added, as they looked at me. They looked at me a little longer, and I smiled. I still thought it was really cool, and I've been using it since we made it three years ago.

"Have anymore tricks like that up your sleeves?" Artemis asked with an edge of sarcasm to her voice, she already knew I did. I smirked and smiled. Then we continued forwards. We went past the lobby, and continued into a hallway. We came to the first door and quietly went inside the room had four creatures in these long pods, and four machines in similar looking pods, the machines looked like they were living, kind of alien/animalistic looking. Then there was one pod that had kind of half and half. They were in this glowing blue liquid. It was freaky. Then Nightwing spoke into the mind link.

"You guys really need to come upstairs. I already hacked the elevator, just get up here. The security guard can't see you, even if he looks at you, thanks to Tempest, but don't take any chances." He said kind of in a trance at what he saw. This wasn't right.

"Well head up as soon as we can" Kaldur said into the mind link.

"We have to check out down those stairs." Artemis and Nightwing said simultaneously. They looked at each other, then at me and Lantern seeing if we were coming. I nodded. We ran out of the room, down the hallway, past the unaware guy at the desk, and opened the elevator doors. Nightwing let me and Artemis go first so he could close the elevator doors behind all of us. Artemis didn't jump right away, so I took out my crossbow, and latched it around the elevator cord. I then launched myself around it and spun around the chord, going down fast, but not uncontrollable. It took my about 45 seconds to get all the way down, unlock my grappling hook from sliding down the elevator chord, and jumping gracefully, to the ground. The actual elevator had been on the second to the top floor when we went up, and hadn't moved when by the time we got down, so we all just dropped down the elevator shaft easily. Artemis landed near me a few seconds later, then Nightwing and Kid Lantern a few seconds after her. I'm not sure how they came down, I wasn't really paying attention it was too much fun spinning around the cord. I bet it looked really cool too. We landed on the bottom level, where the elevator stopped, and looked to the stairs going downwards.

We had gotten all the way here, without running into the rest of the team. We must have missed them, or they weren't here yet. We made our way down the stairs silently. We got to the bottom of the stairs and two people were coming so we hid fast. They didn't see us, but we heard their conversation.

"Project x is almost finished, we just need to fill its memory with false ones of its life after we bought it. Then it will be done. So far it has turned out much better than project k and r." One of them said.

"Project k and r had different treatments, so of corse the results are better. Project k's results were better than project r's, but not good enough. I presume that project x's results will be what we are looking for?" The second person asked. They were both male, but one sounded much more intimidating and the other sounded much more intimidated.

"Yes, the change in the treatment, gender, and breed made a very big, very positive difference. Project x is young, so it will be easily manipulated to be more loyal to us, smart, limber, strong, is mentally stable, and less aggressive than the last two trials, and that is before the different treatment. The treatment didn't make it more aggressive, or hostile, or block the neurotransmitters going to the spinal cord or the brain, or give it rabies-like symptoms, like the other two. The only side affects were a those of a small increase in need for the 'master's' attention and emotional bonding, to ensure loyalty, like any other of that species, but other than that, it did what it was created to. The only stage left is to insert false memories to make it more loyal to us, and you, so you have no need to create an actual emotional bond, the false memories will do that for you. There is a one in one million possibility that anything will go wrong from here, I've done the numbers. When would you like us to start the insertion of the false memories into the weapon?" The more intimidated one finished. What in the world were they talking about? I have so many questions I don't even know where to start. Breed? Of what? 'Master'? There were two other trials? Weapon? So much of that conversation sent red flags in my mind.

"Start inserting the memories tomorrow. I expect project x to be fully operational and a ready weapon in 12 days. That is when it is needed." The intimidating man said before the two ducked into another hallway and were out of earshot. I exchanged looks with them who were thinking about the same as I did, and we decided to split up. It was kind of hard to argue, especially with Artemis only using facial expressions. I swear Kid Lantern didn't have as hard of a time deciphering it as Artemis or the rest of the team.

"Project x is important to the company." I whispered.

"Thank you for reminding us." Kid Lantern said. He almost made me laugh under my breath, but mission, focus Laurie.

"We should contact each other if you find it." I said. I swear, Lantern completely understood the look I gave him, when we were all attempting to argue, it was cool.

"Creepy looking hallway number one, or creepy looking hallway number two?" Artemis asked. There were way more than two hallways, but we got her point. We whispered more, until we eventually picked different hallways, three that looked most mysterious, and evil and such. I went down a hallway and looked inside of every door that I could get into without setting off an alarm or something. They were all files that I looked through as quietly as I could, until I got to a room that held machines, and test tubes full of liquid. Some of the stuff inside was glowing which freaked me out. Some of the vials were labeled project x, a lesser amount were labeled project k, and even less than those that were labeled project k were labeled project r. Like the ones the men were talking about. There were many other vials labeled things I've never heard of before. Maybe in different languages, or of alien origin. It was all really creepy, and I made sure not to touch anything.

I left the room, and was about to turn to another door and heard in the mind link.

"We need to leave." Kaldur's voice sounded strained, and a little dazed like Nightwing had sounded in the mind link.

"We have to report this to batman and the league, for further investigation." He added.

"Ok, you guys go, we'll be right behind you, we'll meet you in the Bioship." Nightwing said into the mind link.

As I listened I turned to the last door in the hallway. I don't know how I missed what was on the door before, because in big black letters it read.

PROJECT X:

Trial Three

After reading it I opened the lock with my shape shifting key, a gift from one of the two green lantern guys to huntress, and she thought I might need it, along with a million other things, for my week with the team, and in general. This might be the only time I was glad she was so worried about it. It had really helped with the other doors, so I could get in and out and lock the doors again, when they weren't keypads, I needed a different approach to that, without being detected, it was like I was never there. This door, just to be difficult, had a key whole, for traditional keys, and a keypad that you needed to press numbers to get into. I'd figured out how to get into these though, so I got in the door quickly. I stepped in slowly and could barely process what I saw. I covered my mouth with my hand and stared. I stared for a few more seconds before Nightwing walked over and saw me, Artemis behind him, as I slid down the wall I was standing against next to the pod.

"Tempest, we need to... Is that" he stopped and I cut in.

"Project x." I said. Artemis looked inside.

Inside the pod was a black puppy, with whitish, grayish spots on its chest, and a little bit on its right front toes, and a little on its left back toes. It kind of looked like a spotted black and white Australian Shepard, but with shorter hair, more black, and a lankier body. Just then, his timing great as usual, Kid Lantern walked in and saw it too.

It was a puppy? The weapon was puppy?

What?

"That's... Project x?" He asked.

"No, the letters engraved on the door are wrong." I said sarcastically but quietly, almost unaware I said it. The dog looked about three-five months old, and was occasionally being poked by the needles and machines connected to the pod. It's body was limp, unconscious, lonely. It was so little, helpless, scared. how could someone do this. Then it stopped. The machines stopped humming, and the one that was not operational before hummed to life.

Wtf was that Oh, Oh no, the two men before, the 'treatment' was finished, now they must be prepping for the memory insertion. No no no no no.

They were going to wipe its memory and put in fake ones, making it absentmindedly love, and abide loyalties in whoever did this to it. I felt strange calling it, an it, but I didn't know it's gender, so it was all I could say right now. I got up and went over to the glass. I looked in at the poor thing, and looked back helplessly over at Artemis Nightwing and Kid Lantern. Artemis looked almost as heartbroken as I felt, Kid Lanterns face had less emotion on it, more horror, and was that a lot anger, than broken-hearted. Nightwing kept a straight face but I could tell this phased him greatly.

"We have to..." I was saying but Nightwing cut me off.

"I have a plan, but we have to be quick, the others are probably almost out by now." Kid Lantern said. He didn't like what they were doing and looked like he would do something completely irrational to stop it. I'd like to say that at that moment I would have been more reasonable, but I agreed with him. We were going to get this dog out.

"I took pictures of everything important." I said, and they nodded that they did too.

I was standing next to the pod, and was waiting for the signal. Nightwing was setting explosives, and technology virus bombs in the other room, with all the vials and project x, k, and r research and data. Artemis was in between the two rooms to give me the signal once Nightwing gave it to her. Then she moved. She gave me the signal and I watched as Lantern used a green machine that burst open the pod simultaneously with the explosion next door. I quickly grabbed project x, wow we need to make a better name for... Um, her. I found out the dog was a female as I ran out of the hallway after Nightwing and Artemis. We weren't sure if opening the pod wound cause the machinery connected to the pod, and connected to the next door equipment would hurt project x if she was removed without proper authorization, or it blowing up the machines and equipment next door before taking her out would hurt her, or set off some chain reaction, so we did it at the same time. And I think it worked.

I felt project x wake up as we were running away from the explosions, which made me nervous, I was holding her awkwardly, so I could run and keep up, and she wasn't a tiny puppy, it was quite difficult to hold onto her and continue moving at the pace I was going, especially if she woke up and started squirming. We kept running until we got outside, and we'd only run into two guards on our way out, because there were so little people here because of the government holiday, and Nightwing had taken care of both of them, just knocking them out. They thankfully couldn't see our faces because of the lights that had blown out for some reason. Now they don't know who we are, thanks to Nightwing hacking into all of the security cameras, and encrypted heat and motion sensors. Once we were outside, project x stirred and suddenly jumped out of my arms. Artemis and Nightwing kept running, not noticing me slowing down. Kid lantern was flying a little behind me in case project x had woken up and tried to get away, it didn't know who we were, so Project x ran as fast as it could to keep up with them. It was pretty fast for a puppy, and I ran alongside it till we caught up with them. Before we had caught up, Nightwing and Artemis noticed I was gone, looked at each other, then looked back at project x running a little ahead of me. They looked surprised and then looked at me, my expression I shrugged, saying,

"It jumped, but it's doing fine following you guys, and I didn't see the need to pick it back up again." They nodded and continued running without a word.

As we were running through the woods, I heard the firetrucks were driving by on the road to put out the small fire at one side of the building. Nightwing used a unique kind of explosives not his usual, so nothing could be traced to us. Falcon Industries would probably cover it up, and close off the area down the stairs, I saw a hatch then opened to cover the gap and the stairs completely, so the elevator shaft looked like it indeed had a bottom, when we dropped down to the stairs, because that area down there was probably not legal. They'd probably just play it off as a machines malfunction and lay low until the police stopped snooping. We reached the Bioship and jumped in before we took off. Project x needed a little help getting onto the platform, but other than that, it just ran with us all the way to the Bioship. Then the rest of the team looked at the four of us, and a few eyes landed on the now sleeping puppy. They're faces were beyond confused and a little angry.

"What happened?" One of them asked, and I'm sure all of them were thinking it.

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 **Hey Readers! Whew, that was long! Ok, so I made this chapter extra long to soften the blow of my new "rule" I need feedback! Tell me what you want to see happen in this story, or any suggestions, any questions you may have, or any opinions you might have. Possible ships maybe?**

 **Ive looked at the views on my story, and I have almost 15 hundred views, and 13 reviews. I need your feedback to make my story better, and so you guys can be involved! So this is where your going to nend that softening of the blow. 3-4 reviews for a new chapter. Ahhhhh, I can feel you all glaring at me through my computer! I know, I know, and I didn't want to be one of those people, with the this many reviews for a new chapter, but I would really like your feedback, and I'm sure that from all of my wonderful readers, it shouldn't be to apocalyptic for three or four of you to write a review. It could be anything, things you hope to see in the book in the future, opinions on it now, or if there's something that you don't like, or think i could improve in the next chapter, questions, anything. And I'll be making a review section on my next chapters where I can respond to any reviews.**

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